


I’ll Count the Stars in your Eyes (And Hope is the Prettiest in your Lies)

by baeconandeggs, WinterDynasty



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, M/M, Mentions of Violence, Slow Burn, Swearing, it’s not really action but we can pretend it is
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-28 02:27:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 47,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15038645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baeconandeggs/pseuds/baeconandeggs, https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinterDynasty/pseuds/WinterDynasty
Summary: Sehun knows Chanyeol likes to pick up strays. A small man wearing glasses, though, is not what Sehun had in mind. And to be honest, he and the adventures he brings along with him are a bit too much for Chanyeol to handle.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt #:** BAE180  
>  **Disclaimer: baeconandeggs/the mods is/are not the author/s of this story. Authors will be credited and tagged after reveals.** The celebrities' names/images are merely borrowed and do not represent who the celebrities are in real life. No offense is intended towards them, their families or friends. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this fictional work. No copyright infringement is intended.
> 
>  **Author's Note:** This is my take on a magical adventure / long distance travel fic. Lol. Wtf.
> 
> First of all, let me apologize for how long that this got……… it really wasn’t supposed to be like this lol. This fic somehow ended up becoming significantly longer than it was supposed to be, so I was unfortunately only able to finish the first half of the fic that I had planned within the deadline, and I’ve posted just enough of it to make it sound like what I hope is a full story anyway. Despite that, this fic embodies so many things that I love, so I really hope that you guys enjoy it too :) I uh don’t really know how to write slowburn (even chanbaek irl are that “love at first sight” couple that seems to stay strong) but I hope I did this prompt justice <3
> 
> Thank you soooooooooo so so so much to my loveliest **N** , whom without her spectacular, fantastic, amazing, and unbelievable help I’d probably be lost at the bottom of the ocean of my tears, to **M** , who tirelessly read through the mess of my mind and somehow helped it all make sense, and to **A** , for constantly supporting me from the shadows and putting up with me crying in her dms daily in the beginning of my writing process and changing plot a million times in the same week, but she loves me and there’s not really anything she can do about it at this point but grin and bear it :) (and to **D** , even though there is no D, just so the letters can spell “damn” backwards because damn this fic was a piece of work.)  
> Also, thanks to the prompter for your prompt (I beelined for it because I needed it in my life) and subsequently for letting me absolutely destroy it. It was fun. And I hope something that you may enjoy came out of it <3

 

—I—

 

Between light and dark, there lie unspoken secrets held tight behind sealed lips, entwined pinkies sealing promises, and mysteries tied in the strings between hearts. Secrets stolen with a kiss, where the stars can’t see...

...there, and only there, will you find me.

 

 

 

It is almost 1 A.M. when Chanyeol returns, holding a small, unconscious man in his arms.

“I know this looks suspicious, but give me a chance.”

Sehun stands aside silently, holding the door open as Chanyeol steps into their shared apartment, still holding what is definitely an unconscious man in his arms.

“What are you holding,” is all that makes its way out of Sehun’s lips.

Chanyeol looks down to the man in his arms and back up to his roommate. “Can you really not tell?”

“It’s a man,” Sehun says softly, fear freezing the words in the air.

“So you can tell.” Chanyeol shuffles into the room, kicking off his shoes with slight difficulty, hopping to keep himself from losing his balance and dropping the man in his arms. “This is a normal occurrence, right? I head out for a walk and come back with something new.”

Sehun doesn’t know how to tell his roommate that this is definitely not normal and that an unconscious man isn’t simply just ‘ _something new_.’ “No,” Sehun begins, “I’m used to you coming back with wounded pups and kittens. This isn’t picking up a stray, Yeol, this is _kidnapping._ ”

“I didn’t kidnap anyone,” Chanyeol snaps. “I found him alone in the forest,” he clarifies as he kneels beside their faux leather couch to lay the man down it. His fingers cautiously move to push the round, silver-rimmed glasses that are sliding down his nose back up to where they belong.

The bewildered look remains on Sehun’s face as he attempts to figure out what part of this he’s missing. “You don’t just find men in the forest.”

“Well I _did,_ ” Chanyeol mutters, finally able to admire the soft features of the man’s face in good light. Red scratches run across his pale skin, trailing from his face, down his neck, and across his arms. Chanyeol’s heart aches at the sight, that he could let such a pretty face get so injured. “He looks like a wounded puppy; can’t you just pretend I picked up another stray?”

“Is that what you did?” Sehun asks as he comes to stand beside him to get a good look at his face, “Mistake him for a puppy?”

“No,” Chanyeol sighs, resting his hand on the man’s forehead, pushing his long hair away from his closed eyes. “I mistook him for a human.”

Chanyeol runs his fingers through the man’s bangs that are as dark as midnight, curling his hair behind his ear as he recounts the occurences of the night.

 

It is a Thursday night, nearing 11 P.M., when he finds him.

Chanyeol is taking his usual walk in a large park near the university campus, enclosed at one end by the entrance to a small forest.

He doesn’t usually come out this late for a walk; in fact, he would have usually returned by now, often with a stray dog who looked hungry or hurt. Unfortunately, Chanyeol hadn’t found any new dogs to pet or cats to pamper on this walk, and by now, it seemed as though he would be returning home alone.

But he got out of work late today and has been busy with paperwork, monetary matters, other pressing concerns, and the day has been far too draining for him not to wander around, even if it’s just for a small amount of time. It’s been a long day indeed, he muses with his hands tucked into his pockets as he walks along the pebbled path dimly lit with small, round lamps that line the streets, their golden yellow light scattering along the misshapen stones under Chanyeol’s sneakers. There is a lot on his mind, and at the same time, there is nothing. But that is why he usually takes these walks — to clear his mind, breathe in fresh air, and breathe out all of his worries into the night.

The trees shudder under the delicate summer breeze like a dance with the wind as they stretch toward the dark night sky, and Chanyeol feels almost as though he could just be consumed in the darkness and the silence, when a flash of bright white light from deep within a part of the park that is thick with foliage catches his eye in the distance.

Chanyeol’s steps stop as he stares toward the forest. As far as he knows, there aren’t any lamps that deep in — nothing should be shining that brightly. For a second, he thinks he may have imagined it, but another spark of light flashes from further off, and then another. Chanyeol squints as he steps off the path and wanders toward the flashing lights in the distance, scattering throughout the forest like fireflies drowning out the night.

Fear seizes his movements. It’s too late for this. The thoughts repeat in his mind until they tangle with each other and clot his mind with panic. He knows that people aren’t often this deep in the park this late at night. This is how people die, isn’t it? They get distracted by something shiny amidst the trees, wander in too deep and get lost, and then they’re never seen again. A shiver like a snake of ice slithers down Chanyeol’s spine as he peeks between the trees and gazes into the vast nothingness of the dark. If he gets lost, would anyone come in to find him too?

A scream from further in the forest catches Chanyeol's attention, as though the trees were swallowing up the sound, and in an instant, Chanyeol is driven away from the path and further into the thick brush of trees in search of the source. Someone needs help, and if no one else was here to offer their hand, then shouldn’t he?

Chanyeol runs deep into the forest, ignoring the chills that tingle down his spine. It’s fine. He knows where he is and where he’s been. He pushes further, even though there is no more light guiding him, even though there is no more sound. Chanyeol begins to slow down when he starts to fear that he is in too deep, that he was called out here by some unknown person for some malicious reason, and it’s just when he wants to turn back that he sees him. Someone runs past him with a yell, scratching his arms and legs on stray branches, tripping over thick tree roots that peek out from the ground, and struggling to stand back up again. He glances over his shoulder in haste as though he’s running from something, but Chanyeol doesn't see anyone else in the forest aside from him.

Chanyeol freezes as he realizes that this is not what he expected. He should leave. He _knows_ he should. He wants to leave but something about watching him run was so captivating that he finds himself attempting to follow along. Where was that flashing light coming from? His hands look empty, like he got lost this deep in the forest without a flashlight. Maybe he had wandered out here hours ago and didn’t know that he’d be lost in the forest this late. Was he screaming for help? He hasn't seemed to notice that Chanyeol has even appeared; if he wanted help, wouldn’t he already be by Chanyeol’s side, thanking him for coming to save him?

Something about the entire situation feels wrong.

That wild look of fear flashing in his eyes as he checks over his shoulder, the haste in his steps, the branches sticking out of his hair and clothing. Chanyeol can't help but be concerned.

He knows that he shouldn’t get involved with something that can go wrong this easily, so he should just go home and leave it to him, but he finds himself jogging behind the man who is running away from nothing, hoping that he’ll be able to help him sort his problem out, or at least help him out of the forest.

Chanyeol calls out to him a few times, but the other man doesn’t acknowledge him. There is no more light, no more screams. Just a man running away from nothing until he falls to his feet with a yelp. He lies there, unmoving, like his motivation and hope has vanished as he pants heavily into the mud, unable to stand and run any further.

Alarmed, Chanyeol runs over to him and crouches by his side, and in a moment, his breath is taken away. By his side lies a pretty face covered in scratches with blood running from his lip down to his chin. He almost looks peaceful, the way his hair lies over his closed eyes, even though dirt and broken branches are caught between the long strands of hair as black as a raven. His lips barely part to release subtle pants of tired air as his chest rises and falls, giving confirmation that he is at least alive.

“Are…” Chanyeol begins, extending his hand to reach out toward him, “...are you okay?”

It’s a dumb question. A dumb question to ask to someone who has very obviously not been okay since he arrived, and definitely to someone who looks like he can’t respond.

His eyebrows furrow at the sound of Chanyeol’s voice, and weary, silver eyes peek out from under his eyelids, slowly glancing about, and as they focus on Chanyeol’s, Chanyeol can’t help but think that his eyes look severely pained, more hurt than his body must be, more regretful than they are apologetic, and he doesn’t understand how every star that seems to sparkle in the universe can be contained in his eyes and seem to cry out in agony until they close once again.

Chanyeol opens his mouth again to tell him that he’ll be okay, that they’ll get help and make it out of the forest, but he is silenced by what sounds like a faint whimper, and Chanyeol needs to strain his ears to make out the words.

“Help,” the man whispers against the dirt, “please, please help.”

The rest of the night could close in around them and leave him trapped in the darkness with the man with hopeless eyes that shine as bright as the stars, and Chanyeol suddenly realizes how little he can truly do.

With a groan, the man slightly lifts himself up and attempts to push himself forward, his eyes glancing around through slits, determination lighting in his muscles as he crawls against the ground.

“Don’t move,” Chanyeol says, leaning down to help him. “You’re hurt badly,” he blurts, stupidly, as though he doesn’t know. But the man simply bites back more and continues pushing himself forward, eyebrows creased in annoyance, gritting his teeth and muttering under his breath, fingers trembling as he reaches out toward the pair of thin, silver rimmed glasses just out of his reach.

Confused, Chanyeol glances back to the man covered in mud, struggling when he could easily take his time with it. With the intent to help him out, Chanyeol reaches forward and picks up the round glasses that are just out of his reach and ignores the man as his determination escapes in a despaired gasp, but as Chanyeol turns toward the direction they came to hold the glasses up and inspect them in the moonlight before handing them to back him, that’s when he sees it.

Something large, _a monster_ , stands too tall to be entirely visible in the lens. It’s thick and bulky, but shrouded in shadow, and claws that look like long, curved blades curl by its side. It looks like a robot from an old 80s mecha movie that was the size of a skyscraper and could easily knock one over just by bumping into it. It’s big. It’s close. Like it’s towering over them, ready to kill, and it opens its large mouth as though it is letting out a hungry, menacing roar. Chanyeol hears nothing more than the rustling of the wind through the trees.

A thin hand grasps Chanyeol’s wrist, the glasses are swiped from his fingers, and in a second, he’s being pulled up from the ground and dragged behind the raven-haired man as he runs, fingers tightly clenched around Chanyeol’s wrist. Chanyeol watches the man’s back as he stares ahead dumbly, watching the swish of his hair reflect the moonlight as he stumbles along, trying to keep up.

Chanyeol’s mind is blank, still in shock from what he had seen, but he runs away unconsciously, out of fear of what may be following, and because the man he came in to save is still pulling him along. When he finally builds up the courage, he glances over his shoulder, hesitant, expectant, afraid.

There’s nothing there. There’s absolutely nothing there. A slight haze in the trees, a shadow split by the beams of moonlight streaming through the leaves, but there’s nothing chasing them, and there’s nothing to be afraid of.

But the man wearing the glasses is running away from whatever he sees. So he’s running too.

Chanyeol’s eyes remain focused on his black hair, swishing as he glances over his shoulder, and Chanyeol can’t help but be awestruck by the panicked look in those eyes and the words that he hears uttered from those pink lips.

_“Fuck it.”_

The hand clasps around Chanyeol’s wrist tighter when sparks of light begin to shoot out from beneath his feet as he speeds up, and Chanyeol is running along, his feet moving when he barely has any control from this point. But the man runs along ahead, a soft magic keeping him light and aglow as Chanyeol stumbles along behind him.

He’s holding a hand to his ear, shouting something as he runs. “Report, report!” Something muttered under his breath. “Can you hear me,” static, “Jongdae!”

And then with a low growl, he seems to shout at the sky, “It’s not just me anymore, will you _please_ help me now?!”

It takes a while, but Chanyeol sees it again. Light appears in tiny sparks and bubbles as if it’s radiating off the man running ahead of him. He hadn’t imagined the light before, but was he imagining this? Without any time to let the relieved sigh escape his lips, the man pulls Chanyeol behind him and lets go of his wrist before he comes skidding to a stop. Chanyeol stumbles behind him as the man takes a protective stance in front of where he assumes the monster is standing, or at least quickly catching up to them. “Target acquired,” he says with an authoritative glare, a stare down as though he’s challenging it to a duel. Chanyeol feels invisible in the intensity.

Light dances along the tips of his fingers as he holds out his left hand in front of him, the joint at his elbow taut against the support of his right palm. The wind howls as a large white circle of light draws itself in the air in front of his thin fingers, intricate designs of letters and symbols form as his lips mutter a spell, and magic insignia materializes at the sound of his voice, commanding and dark.

“Skyra, Sector 4, Byun Baekhyun commands the light.”

Time seems to slow and his voice loses its sharp edge to escape in a faint, desperate plea. “Please... lend me your power.”

“ _Kaihatsu, Altair_ release!”

The center of the magic circle ignites, and with a flash, a thick beam of light shoots from his palm and engulfs the dark nothingness that fills the forest. Chanyeol closes his eyes and looks away as the force of the wind rushes past him, blocking the white light behind his eyelids until the forest seems to settle, the wind fades to silence, and everything stills.

Chanyeol slowly opens his eyes and looks ahead in awe, where the man stands still, his hair falling back in front his ears and the light fizzles out around his arms and his feet in dying sparks.

The man takes one shaky step back, as though his body is crashing under fatigue and relief, before he turns toward Chanyeol, the scars on his face bright and obvious against the glowing iridescent blue of his left eye, his lips serious and annoyed, but gleaming with power. Stunned, Chanyeol tries to open his lips to say something, but the man closes his eyes with a low exhale and takes a stabilizing step back as he holds up his hand, palm facing Chanyeol.

"Skyra, Sector 4," he says as he opens his sharp silver eyes and presses his right palm against the joint at his elbow.

Chanyeol takes a step back, backing into a tree as the wizard’s eye sparks blue with power and the same glowing white circle materializes in front of his hands. “W-wait—”

“Byun Baekhyun… commands…”

The man's eyes flutter, light flashing from his fingertips. As it sputters and dies out, he falls to the floor with a thud, his glasses dislodging from his face and skittering across the damp forest ground until they come to rest at the tip of his fingers.

Chanyeol pants loudly as his heart thuds in his chest and his back shudders against the tree behind him, until his legs give out and he ungracefully falls to his knees. His hand grasps at a fallen branch near him and shakes as he reaches the branch out toward the man lying on the floor. When he doesn’t move with a few pokes to his cheek, Chanyeol leans back against the tree with a sigh, attempting to recount his thoughts.

What just happened? What had he seen? Most importantly what had he just gotten himself into?

After a quiet minute of contemplation, Chanyeol crawls forward along the ground making sure that the man is unresponsive before sitting up at his side. He slowly begins to unbutton his shirt and searches his skin for any serious signs of damage that would require him to be taken to a hospital. Many scratches, deeper cuts, and dried blood mar his otherwise smooth, pale skin, but aside from his own inadvertent damage caused by running through the trees, he doesn’t seem to be otherwise injured.

Chanyeol’s sight is then drawn toward the glasses lying by his fingertips. He carefully picks them up and hesitates for a second before holding them in front of his eyes. The trees whistle in the dark wind, but are relatively undamaged aside from those that were smashed and uprooted by the monster that was following them. Branches and large tree roots lie scattered across the ground, but the rest of the forest remains quiet, unbothered by that large beam of light. Nothing else appears to be hiding in the silence of the night.

He lets out a relieved sigh and acknowledges that they’re safe, at least for now, and places the glasses back onto the man’s face, pushing them up along the bridge of his nose. A sharp jolt of electricity sparks between Chanyeol’s fingers and the glasses, which has Chanyeol backing away from him almost immediately.

He stands, wipes the dirt from his jeans, and glances back down to the man lying unconscious on the floor.

He plays with the thought of leaving him there, but only for a few seconds, before he hoists him onto his back, carrying home with him a tale that he himself couldn’t believe and a man who can borrow power from the stars.

 

Chanyeol runs his fingers through the hair of the man lying on his couch and curls it behind his ear.

“So you’re saying that you brought home a man that almost tried to kill you?” Sehun asks, leaning against his door frame with a suspicious frown.

“He needed help,” Chanyeol responds, “I couldn’t just leave him on the ground in the middle of the forest; what if that thing chasing him came back?”

“He needed help,” Sehun repeats, standing up straight to glare at his housemate. “Someone you’re saying can shoot lasers from his hands needed help from _us_?”

“It made sense at the time,” Chanyeol argues while making sure that the man on his couch looked comfortable, and as he looks at him, he only becomes more confident that he made the right decision to bring him home. “I just knew I couldn’t leave him there alone when he couldn’t move.” As he steps away from the couch, he scrunches his nose at Sehun. “And it wasn’t like a laser; it was more of a _fwshh_ than a _pew pew._ ”

Sehun just returns that tired, blank stare back.

“You don’t believe me,” Chanyeol deadpans, eyes narrowed.

“I don’t believe in invisible monsters and people who can create and expel light, Chanyeol,” Sehun says with a yawn, turning away to return to his room.

“Wait,” Chanyeol insists, carefully sliding the glasses off the sleeping man’s face, “you’ll believe me when you look through these.” Chanyeol holds up the glasses in front of his face, but nothing new reveals itself through the lenses. He sees the couch where the man is lying and the low coffee table next to it. Their television and the stack of DVDs falling over next to it. The three dogs lying on top of each other, asleep in a single bed when another sits unused beside it. The light hardwood floor. White popcorn ceiling. He turns around looking for something, for anything, pausing on the image of Sehun, an eyebrow cocked, a sleepy _“I’m too tired for this shit”_ expression scrawled across his face as Chanyeol lowers the glasses from his face.

“I swear it was real.”

“Goodnight, Chanyeol,” his roommate murmurs as he turns to leave the room, closing his door behind him.

Chanyeol watches Sehun leave, then looks back down to the glasses with a frown. With a quick peek to the man on the couch, he apprehensively puts the glasses on, pushing them up the bridge of his nose to secure them in place. He glances around the room cautiously, wary of anything that may be hiding, watching, waiting. There’s nothing at all.

He takes off the glasses and frowns harder at the round, silver frames. Was what he had even seen real? There was no way he could have made up something like that. There was no way he could feel such a sense of danger if there was truly no threat at all. The only person that may have any idea of what could possibly be going on is the person currently passed out on his couch, and Chanyeol would be lucky if he’d stay to answer his questions when he woke up.

Quite honestly, it seemed unlikely.

Chanyeol sets the glasses down on the table, and takes a single last glance toward the man with the silver eyes before heading into his room to get some much needed rest.

 

 

Ah, they’re calling him. In the stillness dripping like molten darkness from his fingers, he hears it call for him.

It feels like a dream, he thinks, a dream where his toes wiggle in the dirt, grass tickling his bare feet. It feels like his entire childhood shoved into a single sensation. Clouds of velvet gracefully float across the blue sky while he breathes in the tranquility of the sweet air, his mother to his right, and the expanse of possibilities to his left, laughter tinkling like fairies in the midst of their _kapsuli_ dances, bright colorful dresses made of fallen autumn leaves and sunlight with berries and bells tinkling near their bare ankles as they beckon him to join them. They dance along his fingertips and brighten up the sky, until their lights are put out with the soft breeze of the wind and Baekhyun is brought back to reality, beginning to realize that he is, indeed, alone, in the realm of human silence between Earth and Overworld.

They’re calling him.

The stars aren’t bright enough tonight, he thinks, as he extends his hand into the vast darkness of the night sky, as though he was attempting to reach into it and pull the stars closer. They call for him like a siren, call for him to leave the ground and join them amongst the celestials.

It’s an enticing offer, but unfortunately one he always refuses. He still has work to do here.

Another sheer breeze blows through the dark near-midnight sky, rustling the leaves of the tree that he is sitting in and those surrounding him in the forest. As it fades, Baekhyun lets his eyes close, and he leans back against the trunk of the tree to take in the stillness of the night, until it is broken with a subdued _tick_.

In an instant, he leaps out of his position as the tree is pulled out from underneath him, large roots drawn up from the forest floor leaving cracks in the ground as Baekhyun lands just out of their reach as the tree is raised up into the air ahead of him.

Of course, it seems that they’ve left him alone for too long.

Baekhyun wipes the dirt from his jeans, clicking his tongue. A mocking “Hasn’t anyone taught you that it's rude to sneak up on people,” sits on the tip of his lips, but as he turns to see what attacked him, he goes silent at the sight, barely able to see the outline something large and dark blending into the night. His glasses whir softly as his magic searches for a match to the monster in their database. They can’t identify it.

Baekhyun keeps a crouched, prepared stance as he takes in the sight and attempts to figure out his best choice of action when and a deep mechanical voice speaks. “Target acquired. Commence retrieval.”

 _Retrieval?_ Baekhyun jumps out of the way, barely avoiding branches of the tree as it is thrown toward him, paying no mind to the scratches as he scrambles up from the floor and has no time to think before he begins running.

Retrieval means something is after him specifically — someone had a _warrant_ to target him _specifically_ — and getting caught meant punishment, restriction, or worse. Jongdae had returned back home two days ago. There’s no rift nearby for him to get back to Overworld. No, it’d probably be even worse if he did return.

Baekhyun stumbles as he runs to gain time, his attacker barely taking time to let him recover as it follows closely behind, taking large slow steps that shake the forest ground with every footfall. Baekhyun takes the energy to shoot light from his hands back at it, hoping that it could at least light up the forest to help identify it, but he bites back curses as he realizes his spells have no effect on his adversary. His light isn’t enough for this: he hasn’t recharged in days, he hasn’t been _home_ in longer, and he’s really far too tired to deal with this today.

He looks up to the quiet night sky. He looks back ahead. Looks like he’s alone tonight.

As the retrieval unit behind him approaches, Baekhyun switches his main focus to getting away from it. Staying hidden and out of sight would currently be his best bet over getting caught in the midst of his escape plan and being forced back to Overworld. He toys with the thought that he could burn down this forest as an attempt to escape instead, but it doesn’t take him much time to realize that using magic is depleting his energy too quickly. Then again, withholding it would have been useless if he gets caught.

As he runs, he thinks about possibilities to escape; he thinks about possible weaknesses. A crash behind Baekhyun makes him jump. Apparently they’re good at maneuvering through the dark.

Baekhyun’s ears perk up. The dark?

The crash of a tree falling from behind sends Baekhyun plunging to the ground as his light is cut out with a yelp, barely able to manage not being crushed underneath it. He struggles to climb out from between the branches, using flashes of his light to break them, ignoring the tears as they scratch at his legs and rip through his clothing, the single thought of staying alive repeating through his mind. Get up. Run.

His steps falter as he continues running, panting heavily, trying to keep his mind from attempting to figure out why it feels like something is sucking the magic out of him when he knows he can’t be this weak. He grits his teeth as he struggles to hold back his magic and keep running until he can get into a more open area to fight it off more effectively, but his legs feel like lead and wearily sends him falling back to the floor.

He tries to push himself up to his feet, but the pain of the tears in his skin from branches and the exhaustion of overusing his energy leave him pinned against the floor, his blurred vision barely able to make out the shapes of the brown and green blurs of the forest ahead of him blending together as fatigue takes over his body. This isn’t it. The large steps of the giant soldier behind him shake the forest ground with tremors that rumble through Baekhyun’s body and fear seizes his limbs. _This can’t be it._

From far away, Baekhyun can hear the sound of someone approaching — a new sound that Baekhyun had been ignoring, lost in the static of human noise — and a spark of hope ignites.

Help? Had someone caught onto the signals he had been sending out? Was it Jongdae, coming to save his ass from danger that he got himself wrapped up in like always? _Don’t help me up,_ Baekhyun begs silently, _just get rid of it. Let me lie here forever._ As the steps slow when he comes nearer, Baekhyun lets his eyes crack open to see his potential savior, when he is met with the blank ignorant confusion and concern of a wide-eyed human.

 _Perfect,_ Baekhyun sighs as he lets his eyes close and rests against the ground. Here lies Baekhyun, powerful wizard under the ruler of Aohara, about to die next to the universe’s most useless sentient creature.

Was this their sense of humor? Sending him a human when he asked for a miracle? He releases his expectations with a scoff that comes out more like a sob that he had been holding back in his throat for too long, and whispers his pleads and curses to the stars and to the fucking gods watching his misery from above, unwilling to lend even a finger to help him stand. They’re just toying with him now, like they have been for years. He begs for their power and their help and they give him _this_.

 _Fuck off, stars, you’re nothing but balls of hot gas,_ Baekhyun mutters against the ground, his fingers trembling as he tries to push himself up. The human is saying something beside him, but Baekhyun pays him no mind, shaking his thick hands off his sides to the best of his ability. He is not dying like this. Not with a government retrieval weapon on his tail, and definitely not with a human by his side. He can do it without the stars, Baekhyun muses, his fingers trembling as he reaches out toward his glasses, when the human takes them from right out of his reach.

As his hope is doused with his final failed attempt, Baekhyun gives into his pain and collapses against the ground once again, his magic bleeding into the damp forest ground along with his hope that the stars would answer his prayers. The stars hate him. It’s confirmed. They led him here to die. The monster that had been chasing him is getting too close for comfort, but as Baekhyun looks up to it, he sees the human holding his glasses, staring deep into the forest, where the golem soldier lets out a roar that sends chills down Baekhyun’s spine and has him climbing up to his feet, fear motivating him to act without thinking.

He runs.

He needs his glasses back.

He gets his glasses back.

Then he runs.

Baekhyun taps into his lower level power reserves to keep him going, ignoring the pain screaming in his limbs and his lungs. He’d heal later. Right now, he needed to focus on saving his magic and getting out of here.

What does he need? Who does he call? Junmyeon would be dumb to contact in this situation. Jongdae isn’t responding to him. Is there anyone else that wouldn’t _want_ him to die here?

In the midst of his anger, he barely realizes he’s pulling the dazed human along behind him. Baekhyun’s eyes shift over toward him, then back to the retrieval soldier, before he lifts his head up to the sky and lets out a shout. “Will you _please_ help me now?”

The stars twinkle in the night sky as though they’re laughing at him. He clenches his teeth and continues running as his magic unconsciously escapes behind him in streams of light, the glow of the stars leaving their path behind him like a reminder that Baekhyun is their chosen warrior and that they wouldn’t leave him behind here. When Baekhyun notices the power beginning to surge through his veins, he glances up to the stars and looks back ahead with a bitter laugh. Their humor is going to get him killed some day. He’d curse, but he doesn’t want to be left alone (or with a human, which in this case is as good as being left alone) in this situation, so he bites back his pride, holds onto the thin thread of hope that they’re giving him, and takes advantage of it before they decide to take it away.

 

Baekhyun awakes mid-fall and crashes against the ground, his limbs tangled in what feels like a thick net. He struggles with the material he is caught in for only a few seconds before something rough and wet drapes against his left hand.

Baekhyun lets out a shout as he throws whatever he was restrained by above his head. " _Kaihatsu_!" he yells, his hand glowing with power, before his eyes can focus on a small black dog wagging its tail, its nose flush against the spell circle that had formed in front of his palm, seeming too excited when Baekhyun is a murder weapon prepared to destroy.

Baekhyun sits back and lets out a loud sigh, collapsing the spell as the blanket Baekhyun had been struggling with lands on the dog, who immediately begins shaking its head, trying to get it off. “You too, huh?” Baekhyun muses, reaching out to reveal its face.

He leans back and looks up toward the ceiling before his eyes begin to wander around his surroundings as he attempts to make sense of the predicament he is in. A coffee table sits an arms length away in front of a modestly sized television display where a mess of dirty laundry spills out of its basket and DVD cases lie stacked against the display and all around the general area. Behind the blue grey leather couch that he had been sleeping on is a larger family sized table that sits against a wall with an ajar door that looks like it leads into the kitchen, Baekhyun presumes, from a gas stove and sink barely visible through the crack in the door. A human dwelling, is it? He closes his eyes and lets himself relax, giving in to the urge to let his defenses down for the first time in a while, even if only for just a moment. Being stuck in some place that he doesn’t know on earth is better than being stuck in some place that he doesn’t know in Overworld. It’s much better than being caught. Baekhyun reaches out for his glasses and takes a step away from the couch to look cautiously around the room for anything that may be watching him.

The area is secure, but the nerves buzzing in Baekhyun’s body still feel on edge. He crashes back onto the couch and sinks into the cushions with a heavy sigh. He really overdid it, didn’t he.

“Was that a spell cast?” A voice calls from within Baekhyun’s ear, “The demon must be awake.”

“I don’t want sass from you,” Baekhyun bites back as the dog finally shakes off the blanket, bumps into Baekhyun’s hand with his nose, and begins licking his palm. Baekhyun draws his hand away from the pup with a grimace to scratch behind its ears, nonchalantly wiping the saliva onto its fur.

“It’s not sass, it’s concern,” Jongdae corrects him with a familiar laugh that rings in Baekhyun’s ears. “What were you doing in earth realm with an Emerald, Baekhyunnie?”

“Running for my life, thank you,” Baekhyun mutters, adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose. He takes in a deep breath and visibly seems to calm down as his magic connects with his glasses and settles in his veins, his dark eyes dulling with disinterest as he stops scratching behind the dog’s ears to massage his temples. “Was it an Emerald? I couldn’t see. It didn’t look like an Emerald.”

“It was,” Jongdae responds simply. “For someone who’s hiding from the council, you let out a rather large S.O.S. and then disappeared.”

Baekhyun closes his eyes with a groan. He admits, he was rather unnecessarily flashy last night. Was it the adrenaline? The fear? He looks at his hands, slim pale fingers that quiver with a slight tremor, and he makes a fist to get the shaking to stop. “I had a hostage and the situation was dire,” he says instead. “What were _you_ doing yesterday when I was calling you incessantly?”

“Were you calling me?” Jongdae asks, and in his mind, Baekhyun can see the cat-like grin tugging up on the corners of his stupid little lips as he leans back in his chair, safe at home, swirling some coffee in a mug. “I didn’t get a signal from you. Must have been interference on your com. Not our fault.”

“I figured,” Baekhyun responds, kneading his bottom lip with his teeth. As his best friend since they were children, Jongdae was used to cleaning up after the messes that Baekhyun caused, or doing as much as he could to keep him out of trouble. Jongdae works as a lower-tier security manager in Skyra, which lets him have access to the type of necessary magic and data intelligence to keep tabs on Baekhyun and let him know what type of information the government could pin on him, or convey to him what their surveillance could see, which is especially helpful whenever Baekhyun is trying to stay out of their eye. He was always ready to receive distress signals from him and help him out of a situation, so the thought of him not responding especially in such a dire situation must have meant that something was drastically wrong.

He looks down at his hand and up to the ceiling. The stars seem to be on his side only when he doesn’t need them.

Baekhyun leans back and closes his eyes with a sigh. “I can’t believe they’re sending things after me.”

“Retrieval is a formality. It’s not that serious.”

“Not that serious when I almost _died_ last night,” Baekhyun stresses into the communicator in his ear as he presses back against the couch, crosses his arms in front of his chest, and stares up to the ceiling as he recounts the events from the night before. “An Emerald is for a level four threat; it wouldn’t have hesitated to kill me if I resisted for longer.” Baekhyun says, even though he’d hate to admit it, but it’s true. He hasn’t been that afraid of anything that Overworld had been doing to get his attention in far too long. But now they’re taking advantage of his complacency and finally beginning to get serious. Baekhyun sighs and closes his eyes again. “I wish I could get help from Epsilon.”

“Not that that’s possible, but do you really think that would be good for you right now?”

Baekhyun slumps against the couch, letting out a low groan. “Who is going to tell Do Kyungsoo that he’s killing me.”

“Pretty sure he already knows,” Jongdae mumbles.

“Pretty sure it’s his _intent_ ,” Baekhyun adds belatedly.

The sound of approaching movement from elsewhere in the house catches Baekhyun’s ears. He closes his eyes, rubbing at his temples with a low groan. “I have to go, Dae, I got caught up in something embarrassing.”

Jongdae’s voice sounds too preppy. “Where are you? You still haven't sent me coordinates.”

Baekhyun rolls over, pressing his nose against the couch’s supple leather. “Not telling. You’ll laugh.”

“Why would I laugh?” Jongdae asks, feigning innocence although it sounds like he’s already holding back a snicker, “I just want to know the location of whatever it was that saved you last night.”

“I wasn’t saved by anybody,” Baekhyun responds with a growl, his eyes flashing indignation.

“Right right,” Jongdae gives in, “Of course that would explain why you were calling me from human realm,” Jongdae says, trying his best to hold back the peeps of laughter that escape through his lips.

“You ask me for coordinates when you seem to know exactly what was happening,” Baekhyun mutters, amidst Jongdae’s stifled laughter. “Okay, you’re right, I got caught up in the human realm in a magic conflict and now there’s a human involved. Would you like any other type of explanation?”

Jongdae’s burst of laughter is enough of a response to that question, but Baekhyun’s face is already glowing red, far too irate to let Jongdae taunt him this early in the morning. “I have to go, Dae, I’ll give you follow up when I get out of this situation.”

A hasty “Don’t forget” is barely audible through Jongdae’s laughter before Baekhyun mutes the small device in his ear and sits up, letting the heat fade from his face as that human he saw in his dream walks into the room.

“You’re awake,” Chanyeol says as he approaches him, his arms crossed in front of his chest. He’s wearing a long grey t-shirt and gym shorts — the epitome of a non-threatening young adult human male, and Baekhyun almost lets out a scoff. Instead, he stays silent, his eyes following him as he walks closer, showing that he will not be caught off guard by anything that this human may try to do to him, and most importantly that he is not afraid, nor is he able to be intimidated.

Chanyeol stops in front of the couch, and the dog that was sitting by Baekhyun’s ankles runs along and stops in front of his feet, wagging its tail happily. Chanyeol picks it up and holds it against his chest, scratching underneath its chin and letting it lick his face, and Baekhyun can immediately tell that this man will definitely be of little to no threat.

Chanyeol, on the other hand, is absolutely terrified, and he’s glad that Toben is in his arms to keep him at least a little sane. What else was he supposed to do when there was potentially a very dangerous non-human in his living room?

He takes in a calming deep breath, trying to hold the advantageous position in their conversation. “What’s your name?” He asks with a tilt of his head, his voice shaking underneath the glare of Baekhyun’s narrowed eyes, but he clenches his teeth and clears his throat, hoping that he didn’t notice.

The man on his couch doesn’t seem very interested in his tone of voice though, his silver eyes glancing toward the ground as though he’s trying to remember, and Chanyeol’s heart speeds up nervously as he watches his reaction. He didn’t consider that something else could be wrong, or maybe that speaking to him or answering his questions could have some terrible effect on the fragile magic balance of the world, if that was a thing. He could also have a serious non-physical condition that made him forget who he was, and maybe he had no idea what was going on.

When he opens his eyes again, those silver eyes are cutting deep into his heart, an eyebrow cocked in confusion, as though he’s asking Chanyeol for answers himself.

“What are you?” The words slip out of Chanyeol’s mouth before he has the chance to think better of it. “You can’t be human,” Chanyeol says gingerly, as though clarifying would make the situation better, or that it could possibly remind him of last night, to confirm or deny that what he had seen was simply a dream, although there’s a man with silver eyes sitting on his couch, and he knows that there’s no way it could have been, but something… something needs to make sense.

A scoff finally escapes the man’s lips, and Chanyeol feels frozen under the sound as he looks up to Chanyeol, those eyes of his glaring, deep, and sarcastic. “Oh dear, what gave that away?”

Chanyeol grits his teeth. With that single sentence, the atmosphere has changed. Chanyeol can feel some thick, immense amount of power radiating out of him, asserting that even though Chanyeol thinks he is, he is not the one currently in control. Chanyeol struggles to swallow and glance away, hiding the fear on his face as the dog in his arms squirms, caught between the situation.

He knows that it may be futile, but Chanyeol’s curiosity won’t die down.

“What are you doing here?” is what he asks instead. “What’s going on?”

Baekhyun closes his eyes with a groan. “Shouldn’t I be the one asking this question, given that I’m the one in a place I don’t recognize?”

Chanyeol tilts his head and leans forward, expecting Baekhyun to instinctively lean back and tries to hide his confusion when he doesn’t. “I don’t think you have anything to ask after I saved you last night—”

“You did _not_ save me,” Baekhyun replies through gritted teeth and stern eyes, his face barely a few inches away from Chanyeol’s but his anger is nearly palpable. Chanyeol’s arms tighten around the dog in his embrace and he stands up straight. Of course he didn’t save him, but shouldn’t bringing him home rather than leaving him on the ground deserve some form of respect?

“I have no business here,” Baekhyun finishes with a sigh, shifting to stand up, and Chanyeol’s mind is thrown into a panic.

He hadn’t thought about what would happen after bringing him home, after letting him rest here for the night. He didn’t expect him to try to leave immediately, but what did he expect? For him to thank him profusely? To make him breakfast and have a nice conversation about who he is, where he came from, and what the fuck he saw last night?

But the man that was holding all of the answers to his questions is about to stand and disappear from his life and never come back again, leaving Chanyeol a confused mess who will never understand what the hell is going on, and he’ll probably be haunted by the fact for the rest of his life. Unwilling to let the chance go, Chanyeol grabs his wrist, ignoring the anger burning in those silver eyes for just a shot to make sense of everything — for the world to feel upright again.

“You’re injured,” Chanyeol blurts before anything else can come to mind. “Stay. At least until you’re healed.”

Baekhyun holds eye contact with Chanyeol for a few seconds, his eyes narrowed and annoyed before a large, glowing magic circle appears on the floor beneath Baekhyun, and Chanyeol lets go and falls to the floor as he shuffles away, letting the dog run away as Baekhyun begins floating and sparkles of light rise up from the floor to heal his wounds.

It is finished within a few seconds, and as the lights begin to fade, his feet slowly land back on the floor, and he opens those silver eyes glistening with animosity as he stares at the awe-struck human on the floor.

“I’m healed,” Baekhyun says. “I’m leaving.”

“Wait—” Chanyeol yells as he reaches out and grabs his wrist again. “What…” he begins, but his voice is caught nervously in his throat. “What was that thing…” he starts once more, trying to find his voice while cowering under the glare of a man who is appalled by being touched not once but _twice_ by something so filthy and vile. He wants to tell him that he’s just trying to help, but his face gives off the impression that he doesn’t want help, he doesn’t want help from a _human_ , and he doesn’t want help from someone that shouldn’t have gotten involved.

Chanyeol is barely able to find his voice, even though it is weak and quivers in the air between them. “What was chasing you yesterday?”

Baekhyun pulls his wrist from Chanyeol’s grasp once more. “I’m leaving.”

This time, before Chanyeol can stop him, he disappears.

 

 

 

********

 


	2. Chapter 2

 

—II—

 

Baekhyun is a menace that Chanyeol doesn’t think he’ll be able to figure out. He is constantly in his mind, even when Chanyeol doesn’t want him to be. When he is reading a book. Playing a game. Walking to work. He’s always there somehow.

There are questions following that day that Chanyeol has not been able to shake. Who was that man? What was he? He had confirmed that he wasn’t human, but why was that monster going after him? What was it, and will it come back? Could it hurt him too? He couldn’t see it without wearing the glasses, so what if it was already here? Waiting… watching…

Chanyeol has been driven into paranoia, checking over his shoulder for things that he knows he wouldn’t be able to see, jumping at sounds. He’s starting to see things where things aren’t. A monster hidden in the shadows. A flash of light behind his closed eyelids. He thinks he hears singing; he thinks he hears screaming.

 

Chanyeol has a job at a cafe near his apartment. He had been a part-time waiter there since his second year of university, and even after graduating, he had been too used to it to get another. Even though it isn’t his ideal career, it pays enough for rent and groceries, and if he budgets well enough, sometimes he can spend some pocket change on himself whenever he’s feeling particularly fancy. It also keeps him from focusing on that lingering fear of his future where he is currently stuck between recently graduating, attending interviews, and getting job offers. It is a welcome trade off between a relatively boring normal daily life and the promise that this lifestyle can keep him stable with no surprises and no fears.

The cafe is a relatively small building with a vibe that sits somewhere between dark and atmospheric, and a greenhouse patio, as Chanyeol describes it. It has a dimly-lit, laid back interior, with low hanging hooded lamps that scatter yellow pools of light across dark wooden countertops and tables and the matching walnut floor panels. Thin potted trees sit in the corners and frame plush couches that surround scenic fireplaces in opposite corners of the room, while hanging plants dangle amongst the lamps, and small green plants sprout in the middle of tables. Green, leafy plants and vines sit in planters across the windowsills for the rain to pitter patter against the windows, giving the perfect ambiance especially in the rainy season. It’s the vibe of a cool jazzy cafe, one that is just low-key enough to seem hipster, but not enough to scare real coffee lovers away. It’s the type of cafe that would serve Americano with extra shots and specialize in dark brews, but wouldn’t shame a guest for ordering a swirly pink strawberry creme shake.

Some days Chanyeol thinks that it’s a waste of the aesthetic of the cafe only to be full of college students on their laptops, working late into the night and paying little to no attention to their surroundings, but that was exactly what he did in his student years, and he doesn’t know what else he would have done if he didn’t have the option. It’s quite his vibe, between the hushed undertones of light chatter and soft jazz, and the whiz of espresso machines behind the counter. Of course, he had toyed with the thought of working at a dog cafe, but unfortunately, there wasn’t one in the area, and opening one of his own would have been too much work at the time he started working here. Then again, his apartment functions as enough of a dog cafe on its own.

But Chanyeol loves it like this, with the scent of black coffee wafting through the air and the imperfect walnut tables where Chanyeol can sit back and watch people interact, to learn their mannerisms in the way students struggle to finish their homework just before the deadline, in the way a couple avoid each other’s eyes, in the way a girl fidgets on a casual date with her female best friend.

Chanyeol’s heart begins to beat faster as he catches the eye of a man sitting alone in a corner booth, with a large, black coat wrapped around his shoulders and round silver glasses sitting high on the bridge of his nose.

Throughout the previous two weeks, Chanyeol has been thinking of nothing but one thing. Between the stresses of recently obtaining a university degree and wondering about his future, half-heartedly applying to jobs that he knows needs more experience than he has, and coming to terms with working his life away at a desk job for a no-name tech company, Chanyeol’s mind has been preoccupied with a man who is too ethereal to be real, and whose eyes look as beautiful and sad as the stars. This magical being has been stuck in the depths of his mind, and Chanyeol found it hard to focus on anything else when something so beautiful came into his life as quickly as a flash of light and just as quickly disappeared.

Chanyeol glances around the cafe, eyes flitting between the tables, a few young adults chatting along the ledge by the windows, and a woman sitting amongst pillows with a cup of coffee in her right hand and a book in her left. Everyone is served, and although there is protocol in times like these, he doesn’t feel that it would be too harmful to waste a little bit of time to pique his interest.

“Hey, Glasses,” Chanyeol calls as he skates over toward him, curving to a stop beside his table and immediately placing a napkin and utensils down in front of him.

Baekhyun doesn’t seem to hear him, his eyes focused on the stem of the wine glass between his thin fingers, swirling a champagne-colored, bubbling drink around the bowl, his pink lips pursed in a soft pout. He seems to be preoccupied by his thoughts, confirmed by the belated glance up toward Chanyeol when he nudges a dessert menu in front of him. Baekhyun simply stares at him and says nothing for a while until he makes the connection that Chanyeol’s smile is focused solely on him and that he had just said something to him.

The wizard finally blinks. “What?”

Chanyeol’s smile dazzles when he gets a response. “Nice to see you again, Glasses.”

Baekhyun quirks an eyebrow, leaning back in his chair as he asks, “Is ‘Glasses’ my name now? I don’t recall getting that nickname.”

Chanyeol’s smile is unwavering as he sets down a glass of water by his menu and quips, “I’ll call you something else if you’d be so nice as to remind me of your name.”

Baekhyun’s eyes drop back down to his glass, still swirling his drink around the bowl of the glass. It’s thin, tall, and decorated with glass vines that curl around the stem and adorn the bottom of the bulb of the glass: a dead giveaway that it’s too fancy to be one that they use at the cafe. “I don’t like talking with men who forget easily.”

“In that case, maybe you’d feel more obliged if I mention that I don’t recall you telling me your name at all.”

“Not interested,” is the curt response he receives. “I’m working.”

Chanyeol stands by, wondering what he has done to not even deserve the direct attention of those otherworldly silver eyes. “What’s your job?” he asks wispily, in a way that doesn’t expect an answer.

Baekhyun’s eyes close as he raises the glass to his lips, looking like a Renaissance painting, a poised piece of art, from his fringe splaying across his forehead to the long curve of his eyelashes; from the tip of his thin button nose to the pointed pink lips around the rim of his glass.

When Baekhyun lowers the glass from his lips, Chanyeol asks, “Does it have something to do with what happened two weeks ago?” hoping he’d get more of a response out of him if he asks a second time. He stands patiently by, holding his tray against his chest as he waits for an answer, but as it becomes more obvious that Baekhyun doesn’t plan to give him one, his voice drops as he says, “I’d think meeting again allows me to learn a bit more about you?”

Baekhyun lets out a sigh and leans back in his chair once again. His lips purse thoughtfully as though he’s sampling his first taste of a divine wine and debating if Chanyeol is so worthy as to even hear the way he enjoys the taste of the words he’d use to describe the experience. He nods toward the roof. “Can you see it?”

Chanyeol follows Baekhyun’s eyesight up to the roof, where dark wood tiles pattern the ceiling and lamps and potted plants hang down from beams. There is nothing supernatural — nothing worth stealing Baekhyun’s attention away from him.

“No,” Chanyeol responds slowly, “I don’t.”

Baekhyun’s eyes, so focused on Chanyeol’s face as if attempting to discern his thoughts, finally shift downward, dulling behind his thin-rimmed glasses. “Then you’re too young for me to tell.”

Chanyeol rolls his eyes before they stop to glare at Baekhyun, his lips toying with the idea of mentioning his glasses, or even better, just taking the glasses without permission to put them on and see what fantasy this beautiful little devil is teasing him with. “That’s unfair,” Chanyeol pouts playfully, “there seem to be a lot of things I can’t see. How will I know what’s there if you won’t tell me?” Chanyeol’s voice softens as he leans closer. “It’s because I’m human, isn’t it? You won’t tell me.”

“If you can’t see it,” Baekhyun begins with annoyance pricking at his voice, “it means there’s no reason for you to know that it’s there.” His eyes close peacefully as he raises his glass up to his lips once again. “It also means you’re not at death’s door, so if I were you, I wouldn’t bother with it.”

Chanyeol’s mouth shuts in an instant, and it’s almost insulting to see the smug smirk on Baekhyun’s lips as he takes the final sip from his glass. Indeed, there are many things that he can’t see, but he can see Baekhyun, and he’s beginning to wonder if this is the beginning of the end of him.

Chanyeol’s lips open, a shaky question caught in the back of his throat, when he’s interrupted as Baekhyun kicks his chair back and sets the empty glass onto the center of the table. “Well, if you’d excuse me, it’s about time.”

“For what?” Chanyeol calls, but Baekhyun is already standing from the table, ignoring him. As he walks away, Chanyeol begins to follow, an irritated “Hey,” escaping his lips, but Baekhyun pays him no mind. He mutters words under his breath, syllabaries that Chanyeol can’t understand, until he extends his hands from his sides and two thin swords with blades of glowing light materialize in his grasp.

Chanyeol’s breath catches in his throat at the sight. It’s happening again. His heartbeat pounds loudly in his chest as the dull chatter of the patrons drowns out in his ears, his eyes focused on the figure of the young wizard, wielding light in the palms of his hands.

No one is watching. No one else is captivated the same way that Chanyeol is by this beautiful, impossible display.

Baekhyun shifts with a haze, his hands curling around the hilt of twin swords of light, getting brighter with every word of the spell uttered from his lips, and Chanyeol’s stupor is broken by the clear sound of Baekhyun’s dark, commanding voice as he jumps high into the air and raises his swords above his head.

“ _Kaihatsu, Gemini,_  release!”

As he brings them down, an X of light is drawn in the air, sparkles of twinkling light cascading down from the ceiling like a chandelier that had shattered into millions of pieces held still in the air, and Baekhyun had disappeared between the glistening shards of light.

Chanyeol’s legs give out as he crashes back against the booth where Baekhyun had been sitting just a single minute ago. But now he was gone. The wine glass he had been drinking from was gone, leaving only an untouched menu sitting by a neatly folded napkin. Chanyeol holds a hand to his chest, trying to catch his breath, looking for some confirmation that what he had just seen truly happened and hold on to the tiniest flame of hope that this is all real. That he’s not imagining this.

But no one bats an eyelash. No one else’s breath has been stolen from their lungs. No one sees this daydream disappear as he’s consumed by the light of the stars.

Chanyeol is called back to reality by his manager, reminding him that he is still on the job. He weaves between tables as he heads back behind the counter, avoiding the eyes of those who had been staring at him, proving that Baekhyun probably wasn’t here at all, and the silent little smile on Baekhyun's face earlier was just a taunting reminder that he was insane indeed.

It is the things like these that make the infrequent interactions between himself and the man who can summon power from the stars seem like dreams. He wonders if he ever sees him at all. He wonders if he never existed.

He begins to believe that Baekhyun is merely a thought, a subconscious infatuation, a lie that he tells himself to feel better about certain occurrences that have been happening that he doesn’t want to face.

Yet despite all of the attempts he makes to convince himself that thinking about him isn’t worth it, that he’s just a fragment of his imagination, he keeps seeing him, small things that remind him that there’s something wrong about the world that he knows. That there are more things going on behind the scenes that he can’t see and that he shouldn’t even know about.

Nowhere is safe. The cafe. The apartment. The grocery store. His own mind.

Some days, he sees a glimpse of his face. On others, a spark of light. The edge of his glasses, a ruffle of his long, raven hair, a thin manicured hand. Anything to remind him that he’s still there, that he’s with him. That he’s going crazy.

 

Baekhyun is a special type of seeker. The type that can feel his way through the murk of the spirit world and still see clearly ahead of him. Who can wander through the night and not get swallowed up in the darkness. This makes him an asset. It also makes him a fear.

They say that a long time ago, Overworld and Underworld once existed in the same space, a community of magic users that existed together in harmony. They lived with two different magics, each exploiting their strengths yet lacking in something, but when together, they built upon each others strengths and filled the holes where the others were weak. When a great civil war was brought about, Overworld and Underworld were split into two different spaces, two worlds whose skies meet in a delicate kiss. The split brought apart a underspace, a crack between the two worlds where darkness resides, and the darkness spilled into Underworld, filling it with corruption. Leaders who held the darkest of their magic rose up revolt against Overworld, who fought back gallantly, sealing off both the darkness of the underspace and Underworld magic. Underworld wizards no longer exist, and their magic lies dormant and unusable, where it would be deemed safe unless it could be reactivated.

Baekhyun has only heard of these times, those both peaceful and not. He has heard about them from history books during the time he spent in primary school before growing up and hearing stories from the royal generals. His interest had developed as such, from his time of general education, to general wizarding classes, to the more specialized seeker classes, training magic for combat, protection, and when necessary, destruction.

As a wizard, Baekhyun is well esteemed. Higher ups in the council used to say that he was too young to be of any worth. That he wasn’t a good enough wizard to be a seeker. That he was too different to fit in. Rumors spread that the only reason he was in advanced classes was because he had been tutored by Kim Junmyeon, and that Junmyeon unreasonably favored him. Of course, his late mother added to his status.

These rumors spread like wildfire, and most rumors are the reason the majority of his society avoids him. Baekhyun didn’t mind the rumors, nor did he mind the taunts, but he refused to let them be the cause of his downfall, and he was not going to be known for acts that were not his own. It would be a lie to say that he didn’t work hard, but it would be more true to say that things like this came naturally to him after making it through general education. Magic flow was easy. Multitasking was easy. Making it on his own was easy. It was through these skills that he quickly made his way to the top, both in intelligence and in usage of power, and although they may not like him, those are things that they could not deny he had.

Despite his own hard work, people never trusted him. People always worked to get rid of him. Around age twenty-five, near the end of his proper training, a few classmates of his had devised a fake exam as a test of courage for Baekhyun, who was sent into the heart of the Weeping Forest to receive a stolen witch’s pendant as a joke of a mission. The forest was a death trap, haunted by witches and the souls of the dead, Underworld spirits seeking revenge far before the civil war, and there were rumors that anyone who entered would be immediately killed or lost forever, to never return. Baekhyun, who hadn’t heard the rumors, who had no interest in the stories, walked straight into it anyway, and was the first to return from it not only alive, but with darkness dripping from his long, dark hair, holding the golden pendant in his hands. And as he laid it at his instructor’s feet, he sealed his name as a Child of Darkness.

Byun Baekhyun is feared. More than fear, he is hated. Hated by people who hate the things they do not understand, who hate the abnormal.

Baekhyun is an Overworld seeker, whose piercing silver eyes glare at everyone behind his thin round glasses and remind them that although he is one of them, he will never be accepted.

 

Entrance into and out of the magic realm is governed by guardians. Each main gate is guarded fairly heavily to keep track of those in Overworld and those who remain outside of it. Trespassers and well known thieves would not be let in through such official gates, and of course, Baekhyun wouldn’t be let out so easily either. At least, not without someone alerting Junmyeon that he was escaping. But any good escapist knows that there are tiny fissures in Overworld’s magic barrier that leak magic into the human realm. They are the cracks that pixies squeeze through in the middle of the night to get their rare look at the human world outside of their work to help change the seasons, dancing along newly blooming flowers in spring, riding the wind that shakes leaves from their trees in the autumn. They’re the cracks through which ambrosia leaks, the sirens’ songs that draw fishermen out too far into the sea. But Baekhyun slips out of the magic world through the small cracks in his snowglobe just to get a breath of the freedom in the air.

 

Overworld is a haven to no one but to those who are willing to abide by the rules, and Byun Baekhyun fits nowhere in that category. With the itch of magic scratching at his skin, Baekhyun is constantly reminded that his is on the inside of the barrier, hard at work to keep Overworld clean and its inhabitants safe through the purification of the air and reallocation of used magic. He sneezes.  _Overworld indeed._

Overworld magic runs through the air on this side of the barrier, making it far different from the environment that he had been spending the last few months in. The lights are brighter. The air is cleaner. Those who live here are each magic wielders, and almost all of them fear him.

Overworld is a haven to no one but to those who fit in, but for now, it’ll have to do. His dislike for the place he used to call home is the least of his worries, as at least on this side of the barrier he can relax with the safety of keeping his mind and his thoughts away from that human named Park Chanyeol, with many other dangerous threats in this realm to worry about instead.

Baekhyun had returned back home for a meeting with Jongdae, the only wizard in Overworld whom he could trust and keeps in close contact with. He was his best friend since he was young, one of the friends he had met early in basic wizarding school, and the only one who hadn’t shunned him when all of the others had.

More than just a childhood friend, Jongdae was a consultant, Baekhyun’s “guy in the chair”, running many of Baekhyun’s schemes from behind the scenes, even when he doesn’t fully agree with the goal, because he knows that if anyone needs to be there to pull Baekhyun’s ass out of trouble at the last second, it needs to be him.

As one of the most important people to him, Jongdae finds it unfair how little time that Baekhyun has to spend with him, choosing to spend all of his time on Earth with the humans instead. For someone who had been away from home since mid-Spring, he hasn’t made time to meet with Jongdae at all, merely hearing his voice through the communicator in his ear for the past couple of seasons. And on the days he does make the trip home, it is often too risky to plan trips to see Jongdae or to tell him in advance where he plans to be, so the meetups like these are rare and very long awaited.

That is why when Baekhyun walks into the teahouse to meet him, Jongdae nearly runs up to him and embraces him, much to Baekhyun’s chagrin.

“I’m glad you’re safe.”

Jongdae leads him to his table, excitedly chatting about how his days have been. After their drinks are served, creams and sugars added to taste, and their conversation has settled into the general buzz and chatter of the other patrons in the cafe, Jongdae sets aside a few seconds to just smile at his friend, evoking a raised eyebrow from Baekhyun.

“It’s truly been too long,” Jongdae says, reaching out to hold Baekhyun’s hands, and the electricity that jumps between their skin makes Baekhyun shift in his seat. Jongdae’s not usually touchy, and Baekhyun doesn’t like being touched. “It’s been weeks since I’ve last seen you, and you know that I’m always worried.”

“You, worried, about what?” Baekhyun asks as he draws away from Jongdae’s hands, “It can’t be about how my work is going.”

“Baekhyun,” Jongdae sighs, “Can’t you just come back home?”

Baekhyun pouts, looking off with a frown. “Don’t want to.”

“What are you doing back in the Otherworld that’s so important?”

“Aside from work?”

“You’re barely working,” Jongdae chides him, “and spending time with humans can’t be so much fun that it’s worth risking your life every day.”

Baekhyun lets his sight drop from his friend. It’s not. At least not the way it used to be. He used to spend so much time on Earth to get away from all of the stuffy business of Overworld, to run through empty fields and glide across rivers and lakes, and especially to toy with humans like he used to as a child. Now he’s spending time in Overworld to get away from humans. Well, one in particular. Even though his job is very Earth-centric, he does spend a lot of time travelling around, retrieving souls, and moving on to the next destination. However, recently most of his work has been contained to the same general area. Each time, that human has been there. That tall human with his dark curly hair and large, innocent eyes. It seems that anywhere Baekhyun has been going, even on trips that aren’t for work, the other man has been there, and Baekhyun can’t stop wondering how long that he may have been in his line of sight. He had never noticed his presence, but had he just not paid attention to it before?

Jongdae looks concerned. It’s a look that Baekhyun doesn’t like.

“I’m trying to figure something out,” Baekhyun mutters, if anything to get that look off Jongdae’s face. “Remember a few weeks ago, the last time government sent retrieval?”

“The day you were saved by a human?”

Baekhyun ignores the slight peek of a smile on Jongdae’s lips. “I want to know why they’re trying so urgently now. They won’t send anything after me if I just willingly come home and walk into their hands, and that’s the last thing that I want to do.”

Jongdae watches him with a frown. As someone in surveillance with knowledge of retrieval, he knows that it’s true they’re less likely to move after him in front of the general public. As his friend, he thinks his safety is more important than finding out their motives.

“Would you happen to know on what basis that they’re attempting government retrieval for?” Baekhyun asks, thoughtfully tapping his fingers against the table. “You said it was an Emerald that night. An Emerald sent for retrieval must mean they want their target with some amount of urgency, or it at least requires a warrant, doesn’t it?” He purses his lips and lightly curls his hands around the ceramic mug in front of him. “What do they want to bring me back so badly for?”

“Are you looking for a reason other than the fact that you’re probably breaking a million rules on the other side of the barrier and that they’ve been wanting you back since you left?”

Baekhyun’s eyes shift upward to meet Jongdae’s. “That’s never gotten them to send a retrieval weapon after me before.” His eyes drop back to his mug as his hands tighten around the cup. “Especially one requested by Doxian.”

Jongdae doesn’t give a response, and the silence is chiling. When Baekhyun can’t take it anymore, he says, “If you don’t know, that’s fine. If possible could you look into it? Forgive me, but I’ll trust you with this again.”

The tense look on Jongdae’s face finally breaks with a mirthless laugh. “You want me killed.”

“Only so that we go down together,” Baekhyun responds with a wink before raising his cup to his lips to take a long drink. With a sigh, he sets down the mug and stands, brushing his hair away from his eyes. “I have to go. I didn’t come back just to have tea and a chat.”

Jongdae’s face relaxes and a frown settles onto his lips as his dark eyes peek over his thick black frames. “What else are you looking for?”

Baekhyun returns a simple smile. “Adventure. And maybe a stone from my mentor.”

 

 

**********

 

 

Chanyeol lets the situation carry further than he should. He stops bringing home dogs. He stops waiting behind the fences to feed the cats that gather outside of the neighborhood. He stops pretending that Baekhyun isn’t taking over his mind every waking second of the day.

He finds himself looking between the booths at the cafe for a sneak of dark black hair, for a small wizard weaving silently between the chairs, or sitting, with a glass between his fingers, silver eyes staring up to the ceiling as he lies in wait.

He’s in his mind, if he’s honest. He’s everywhere that he looks, yet nowhere at all. A glimpse of light that whizzes past his view but disappears when he turns to watch it. A peek of silver eyes in the midst of a crowd. And each time, Chanyeol can’t help but want to chase after it. It’s ruining his concentration, it’s ruining his mind. Baekhyun is a virus and he’s gradually beginning to take over, multiplying, and developing into paranoia.

Days go by like this. Weeks go by like this. Hours are drawn out with the ending of August as it shifts to September, summer breezes fading to autumn chills, still green leaves shaking in the wind, ice cream that melts down along fingers holding cones until it pools into colorful puddles that match those left behind in the end of the season rain.

Sehun is heading back to university soon, finishing the last of his final year to soon follow Chanyeol to wander in this abyss of having every opportunity to decide whatever they want with their lives, but as he stays inside to study and write his thesis most days, Chanyeol is left to drown in his own thoughts in their stuffy apartment. Whenever he tries to bring up the wizard with pretty silver eyes to Sehun anyway, Sehun brushes him off, tells him that he’s a nerd who’s letting his fantasies intercept his reality, and tells him to stop playing around and finish washing dishes.

Chanyeol continues taking walks around the nearby parks to let his mind clear as much as it will, although his strategy of taking longer walks when his mind was the most clouded has not been alleviating much of his worries for these past couple of days. He looks around the area, hoping to find anything that may distract him from the thoughts buzzing through his mind. He watches children on the playground pushing each other on swings and sliding down slides, people playing ball games in the midst of the field and rolling down hills, until the sparkle of something between the trees catches Chanyeol’s eye.

His movements freeze instantly. It feels too similar to that warm night a couple of weeks ago that had been playing on repeat in his mind since it happened. It isn’t the same park where they first met, but it is the same distraction of something shiny amidst the trees, bringing with it these familiar feelings of curiosity, concern, and dread. If he follows after it again, how much worse could this situation get? He tries to look away but he sees it again, the image a little more defined, like someone wandering near the edge of the trees, crouched down as though he is looking for something that he lost on the ground, until he stands and walks further into the forest.

Chanyeol watches from afar for a few seconds, both fear and curiosity rushing to fill his mind before he can be swayed one way or the other. Chanyeol is quick to admit that he has been suffering for the past couple of weeks, and if there’s any tiny bit of hope that he can gather to understand what is going on in this situation, this might be his last chance to get it.

Chanyeol chases it.

He runs into the forest, leaving the playground, the hills, and the possibility of clearing his thoughts behind in pursuit of all the answers to the questions that had been plaguing him for weeks. In the light of this sunny Sunday afternoon, Chanyeol escapes into the shade from the leaves, running along the paths to follow after the dark haired figure that is slowly becoming hidden among the trees. It’s not so ambiguous this time. It’s him. It’s… probably him. And if it wasn’t, there wouldn’t be any more negative repercussions, could there? Nonetheless, he continues following after him as he walks through the trees, looking around for something as though he hasn’t noticed Chanyeol chasing after him.

Chanyeol reaches out as he catches up to him and clasps his hand tightly around his wrist, pulling him backwards until he comes crashing into Chanyeol’s chest. Chanyeol staggers backward as he takes a few deep breaths, triumphantly having caught up to his target.

“You,” Chanyeol pants heavily, his voice low, face flushed a muted red as he attempts to regain his breath.

Baekhyun’s eyes are wild, like a predator caught off guard and ready to defend.

“I found you,” Chanyeol breathes, legs buckling as he bends over, his hand still tightly wrapped around Baekhyun’s tiny wrist.

“How did you do that,” Baekhyun asks slowly, and as Chanyeol looks up to meet his face, he thinks that it's the first time he has ever seen him look so intrigued and so annoyed at the same time. It's the first time he has ever seen him so bewildered. So out of control.

Chanyeol watches as sparkles of golden light seem to fall from his skin like he was just pulled from a shower with the stars, only to be interrupted by this incompetent human being once again.

Chanyeol is too mesmerized to speak before Baekhyun breaks the silence. “There’s definitely one near here,” he mutters, pulling his arm away from Chanyeol to tap at the side of his glasses. “Dae, status, human realm, coordinates—”

“Listen to me when I’m talking to you!” Chanyeol shouts over Baekhyun’s words, stunning the wizard into silence as he blinks at the human who dared to raise his voice at him.

“Human realm?” the voice in Baekhyun’s ear buzzes, “You were just here a few minutes ago?”

Baekhyun stares at Chanyeol for a few seconds, before his lips press into an annoyed pout. “Hold on for a second,” Baekhyun says, pulling the small device from his ear and placing it into his pocket. “Attention given. What would you like?”

“Answers,” Chanyeol’s voice comes out in a low growl. Baekhyun’s posture straightens as he looks down on Chanyeol, who stands up straight in an attempt to gain an upper hand in this conversation, but Baekhyun’s presence is still so large and overwhelming, like a wall that Chanyeol couldn’t hope to climb over.

“Who are you?” Chanyeol finally asks, “And why are you in my mind?”

Baekhyun’s eyes scan across Chanyeol’s face as though he is searching for some type of clue, maybe like he is seeing something in those glasses of his that he’ll refuse to tell him about again.

“What are you?” Chanyeol asks again when he gets frustrated from receiving no response, and his hands reach out to grab Baekhyun’s arms, noting the similarity of his body structure to a human’s — the slight definition of his biceps, his broad shoulders — before they rise up to his face, squeezing his cheeks together. “You feel human. Are you real? Are you fake? Are you just an illusion?”

Baekhyun closes his mirthless eyes. “I’m going to hurt you if you don’t stop touching me.”

Chanyeol’s hands release Baekhyun’s cheeks in an instant, recoiling when Baekhyun’s eyes listlessly open again. When he makes eye contact with Chanyeol, he runs his hands through his hair with a sigh. “I knew there was a reason for you not to get involved,” he mutters.

Chanyeol’s hands tremble at his sides as he realizes that he’s about to face this threat straight on, and suddenly he is unsure if he’s truly ready to hear all of the answers to the questions he wants to ask. He’s already come this far. No backing out now. “I’m already involved, so speak up.”

Baekhyun glares at him from the corner of his eyes, looking as though he’s trying to keep his annoyance from seeping into his voice, but Chanyeol stands his ground as Baekhyun steps closer, closely examining his features.

“You’re truly human, right?” Baekhyun asks, eyes still looking up and down Chanyeol’s frame. “How did you pull me out of Overworld?”

Chanyeol searches for his voice in the midst of exhaustion. “Out of what?”

Baekhyun quickly scans the confusion on his face and looks away. “It seems you don’t know as much as I figured you would if you were a threat.”

“What does that mean?”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes and takes a step back. “It seems that you’re just a human who accidentally got caught up in my business, and I’m too busy to explain things that you shouldn’t know.” He blows the hair from his eyes and glances away. “There are some things about this that I’m also trying to figure out, so I wish there was more that I could tell you, but there really isn’t.”

“Why can’t you tell me anything? Are you following me around?” Chanyeol asks, placing his hands back on Baekhyun’s shoulders and shaking him a bit, who humors him by going along with the motion like a ragdoll. “You’re showing up everywhere. At my job, in the supermarkets — I’m scared that I’ll be at home and turn around and see you standing behind me, or I’ll open up my closet and you’ll be hiding in there.” Chanyeol stops when he notes the confusion on Baekhyun’s face, more disgusted than understanding. “I didn’t mean to interrupt you or whatever the fuck I got caught up in that night, but if you would just stop haunting me, I swear won’t do it again.”

Baekhyun shakes off Chanyeol’s hands and lets out a loud sigh. “I’m not following you. And I’m definitely not  _haunting_ you.” He runs his pale hand through his dark hair, pressing the heel of his palm against his temple. “In fact I was hoping to keep you away from all of this, but it seems that you’ve somehow become entwined with my work.”

“How? Why? What have you done to me?” Chanyeol asks. “I’m seeing things that shouldn’t be here.” He takes a step back and breathlessly adds, “You shouldn’t be here.” Baekhyun raises an annoyed eyebrow, letting Chanyeol continue his narrative until he snatches the glasses from Baekhyun’s face, stepping back out of Baekhyun's immediate range of reach and holding them above his head. “What are these,” Chanyeol demands, pushing Baekhyun back when the short wizard approaches him, anger drawn in red splotches across his cheeks and creased lines on his forehead.

“Let go, you brute, you’re getting your shubby fingerprints all over the lenses!”

“I put these on, and now you won’t get out of my mind; what are they!”

Baekhyun’s anger fades from his system as quickly as the flame caught. “You put on the glasses?”

His question is met by Chanyeol’s silence as he stares at the bewilderment in his eyes, mirrored by Baekhyun’s own confusion, indicating that it was not the response that he was expecting, and Chanyeol doesn’t know how to continue aside from a slight nod.

Baekhyun’s eyes are smooth and calm, until his brow furrows and his eyes quickly scan the air as though he is searching for an explanation, then a flash of fear sparks through his wide eyes.

“No,” Baekhyun mutters, taking a step back from Chanyeol as his fingers rise to his temples before he remembers that he isn’t wearing his glasses. “No, no,” he repeats, making hand movements in the air when suddenly, a thick golden string appears between his chest and Chanyeol’s own chest. The anger in Baekhyun’s face becomes more apparent as he tugs at it, tugging Chanyeol along with it until their noses are mere inches apart until Chanyeol can clearly see the anger sparking in those beautiful silver eyes.

“This is why you’re appearing everywhere I need to be?” Baekhyun asks, his voice cracking as his grip whitens his knuckles around the string. “Why Kyungsoo and the gem soldiers have been following you, why genomes are forming so easily around you?”

Chanyeol stays silent as the red in Baekhyun’s face becomes more noticeable, unable to do anything else when Baekhyun is speaking in words that he knows he doesn’t understand. Chanyeol’s dry throat holds back a sheepish laugh as he wonders why he’s being yelled at for something completely out of his control when he is equally frustrated himself and, in his opinion, quite honestly deserves to be more so than this man.

Baekhyun lets go of the string and pushes Chanyeol away from him with a low groan. The string between them disappears when Baekhyun runs his hands up through his hair and grasps at the dark strands in frustration, and Chanyeol watches silently from behind. It’s the first time that calm atmosphere that has always seemed to surround him had broken, and he is unsure of what beast he has seemed to awaken within the wizard.

Chanyeol watches silently as he tries to recount what he has learned. Baekhyun is not purposely following him around, and he’s definitely not the reason that strange things seem to be happening around him, or at least he’s not meaning to be the cause of them. Some of the anger tensing in Chanyeol’s muscles dissipates as he realizes that the wizard in front of him is equally as confused by the situation, if not more, especially because he seems to understand the implications of what is going on. So Chanyeol watches from the distance as Baekhyun mutters spells to himself, light sparking around his being in frustrated releases of magic until he turns around, eyes narrowed, his left eye sparking blue with power.

“You,” Baekhyun speaks, his voice low and commanding. “Who are you?”

Chanyeol blinks, unsure of how he should answer when the man who should know the answers to all of his questions is suddenly asking the same questions back at him.

“What’s going on,” Chanyeol asks instead.

“You’re leeching off my magic, that’s what’s going on,” Baekhyun hisses, and the magic sparking in his hands increases in intensity as strings of light begin to rise into the air, dancing around his body in tune with the anger flashing in his eyes.

Chanyeol raises his hands innocently, recognizing that the situation is far worse than he had figured. “I have no clue how that is happening if it really is, but I swear I don’t mean to.” Panic flares in Chanyeol’s chest when Baekhyun doesn’t seem satisfied with his response. “Can I give it back or something? Take it, I don’t want it,” he says before he bites his lip, wondering if that’s true. No, having magic would be great. But no, not if it means he’s being followed around by giant killer robots. He can definitely have his magic back.

Baekhyun watches Chanyeol with narrow, searching eyes, his chest obviously rising and falling as he takes in quick, deep breaths, but it slows down as he begins to calm, along with the wind and the light spreading across the forest, and he speaks with a softer voice that is still too angry to call calm. “You truly don’t know anything?”

“Do you think I’d be running after you if I did?”

Baekhyun stares at Chanyeol for a few more seconds, still searching for lies in his expression until he closes his eyes, irritably releasing his anger in another sigh, and Chanyeol staggers back and his legs relax as the spells retreat and the sparks of light calm. When Baekhyun opens his eyes, the blue iridescent flame in them is gone. “I let you live as thanks, but now you keep coming back and making me regret it,” he says, scratching at his arm and stepping closer, annoyance and confusion blending into tired agony that is more apparent in his voice than it is in his strong eyes. “If I find out that you’re anything other than what you say you are, I will kill you on the spot, do you understand?”

It’s the wrong time to mention that he actually had passed out and hadn’t necessarily greeted him with a ‘Thank you’ when he awoke, but Chanyeol accepts the thought of the gesture anyway with a snide remark under his breath. “Is it not a rule of your kind to keep humans safe?”

“Why would anyone think that we’d build rules around the protection of useless things like humans?” Baekhyun snaps. “And even if there was a rule, I’m not necessarily known for being an ‘upstanding citizen’ anyway.” He steps toward Chanyeol and holds out his hand. “Give me back my glasses, while I’m asking nicely,” he says, even though annoyance is scribbled across his face. “I suddenly have a lot of work to do.”

Chanyeol knows he could and should end this here, but he has to gain some amount of power back from this conversation. “And if I say no?”

Annoyed laughter escapes the wizard’s thin lips. “If you say  _no_?” Baekhyun asks softly, though his tone in menacing, his eyes narrowing as he steps closer to Chanyeol, but Chanyeol steps back, raising his hand up in the air, pulling the glasses further out of Baekhyun’s reach.

Chanyeol’s voice is low and his eyes are narrowed in an attempt to regain a higher ground, although he is slipping quickly. “If I break them, will this nightmare end?”

“If you break them,” Baekhyun begins calmly as if calming down a young child, “it will probably be the end of you and the world you know, so if I were you, I wouldn’t test it.”

“Tell me how to get rid of this,” Chanyeol demands, his fingers trembling around the lenses. “How do I get rid of you? How do I get you out of my mind?”

Baekhyun lets the annoyance he had been trying to hold back take over his expressions. “Listen, I have but a theory, but I really don’t have time for this; I have things that need to get done.” Baekhyun fishes the communicator out of his pocket as he takes a step away from Chanyeol. “Have you found my coordinates?”

“I’m not done with you!” Chanyeol yells, and right when he does, a flash of light streaks past him, and in an instant, the glasses are snatched from his hand, and Baekhyun is crouching behind him.

“If you know me, you know I’m dangerous,” Baekhyun mutters, slowly standing up. “So stay away.” He places his glasses on his face as Chanyeol turns around to look at him. “I’ve told you already, I’m not good for you.”

Behind the annoyance, Chanyeol can see a sadness in his eyes that tugs on Chanyeol’s heart, but no words make their way out of his lips by the time Baekhyun turns around and starts walking away, talking to whomever he was speaking to previously via that device in his ear.

 

Days pass after that last encounter with the wizard in the woods, but Chanyeol still can’t shake the fear that something is watching him. He is absolutely certain that things have been following him, but when he turns around to look for them, nothing is there. If he had the glasses, could he see them? If he could see them... would it be worse? His fears return in flashes, startles when he least expects them, and only increase when he does. That monster from before could have come back to find him. Those things the wizard had been chasing could be trying to harm him, but he had pushed the wizard away, and now he has absolutely no defense from the things he couldn’t see that could be hiding in the darkness.

Chanyeol’s walks continue to decrease in efficiency. He walks outside on days he is worried about the other things he is usually worried about, until these walks slowly turn into him thinking about the nameless wizard and either end with him running home, afraid of what may be watching him, or bringing back home a small, abandoned dog, afraid that whatever may be chasing him could go for the dogs (It is very probable that he still takes the walks for the dogs). On days that his worries completely center around the wizard and whatever may have escaped into Chanyeol’s world from his, however, he stays home, curled up in the dark in his room, hoping that at least there, he may be safe.

On this day, Chanyeol is out on a walk — his mind is full of worries about rent and needing to find a job that can handle his actual monetary demands (the costs of weeb shit and taking care of many dogs are not cheap). It is the type of night where the air is no longer stuffy and humid, and breezes blow away the remnants of summer to bring in the cooler feel of autumn. He needed to get out of the house tonight, otherwise he would lock himself in and never leave, but Chanyeol can’t shake the thought that it’s eerily similar to the day he met the wizard: in a place where something shouldn’t be, something supernatural is there... except this time, he would be the man alone in the forest, running away from the thing that he couldn’t see.

Chanyeol continues his walk while whatever presence may be behind him follows along. He’s too far away to get home immediately, and he’s yet to come across any small animals to comfort him on the walk, so he grits his teeth and digs his nails into his palm as he attempts to convince himself that he truly is alone and that nothing is following him home. He walks under street lamps to give him a small sense of security, passing by other joggers or small groups of people crowding along the sidewalks, but their presence doesn’t give him any ease, knowing that none of them know there is something hiding in the dark that they can’t see.

Along a relatively long and lonely stretch of road, a street lamp behind him flickers and bursts. Chanyeol jumps, startled by the loud noise, and only garners to courage to glance over his shoulder after the sound has faded completely back into silence. His breath catches in his throat as he sees it — a dark, misshapen figure in the darkness — and he turns around quickly, like if he pretends that he hadn’t seen it, maybe it would leave him alone. Chanyeol clenches his teeth and begins walking again, terribly aware of the fact that the figure behind him moves forward with him, gradually closing the distance between them. As it moves slightly, the next street lamp meets the same fate as the first. Chanyeol lets out a scared yelp, wrapping his arms around himself as he walks faster until the next streetlamp bursts, indicating that the thing is getting closer, faster. Chanyeol begins running to stay underneath the lights before they are all snuffed out, but the lamps burst faster, the darkness and each shatter of glass getting closer, closer,  _closer_ —

He drops to the floor and holds his arms above his head to protect himself from the next shower of glass of the streetlamp he stands underneath, yet although the screech of the glass breaking and the streetlamp crumbling comes, nothing falls onto Chanyeol. Trembling, he looks up, where a man wearing a long black cape stands in front of him, one hand raised above his head and the other extended in front of him as a barely visible force field of light forms in front and above them to protect them from the shards of metal, rock, and glass clashing against it and being flung aside.

Chanyeol remains crouched on the floor as he stares ahead, breathless and afraid. When the debris stops crashing down on top of them, the man lowers his hands, cracks his fingers and his neck, and takes a familiar stance, with his right foot slightly behind him, his left arm extended, and his right palm pressed against the joint at his elbow.

He holds out his hand and speaks with a low, chilling voice.

_“Kaihatsu.”_

The preparation of the spell. The release. The blinding light that follows.

Chanyeol crouches further against the floor and covers his head with his arms until it fizzes out to silent darkness. Chanyeol opens his eyes to the sight of a wizard in the black cape standing in front of him.

And as he looks over his shoulder and glares down at him, those silver eyes meet his own, and Chanyeol begins to feel like he is drowning all over again.

 

Chanyeol wakes up in a cold sweat in his bed, his heart beating wildly in his chest as he struggles with his blankets. What had happened? He was on a walk; how did he get back home? Had he passed out? Had he not gone on the walk at all? Was he beginning to penetrate his dreams?

No, no it felt too real. The surge of adrenaline through his veins, the shattering of the glass behind him, and those sharp silver eyes glowing in the dark night…

Something is wrong. Something is very wrong.

 

Chanyeol completely stops going on walks. He stops staying outside for longer than necessary. He alternates between staying at home and working at the cafe, and then he tries to return home early, turning down friends’ invitations to go out at night to possibly avoid the things that may be waiting for him in the dark.

The haunting image of that dark figure that night has been burned into his memory, along with the fears of what would have happened if the wizard hadn’t been there for him, and what if he didn’t come the next time.

Chanyeol has realized by now that he needs to face this problem head on because even if he tries to ignore it, he won’t get his normal life back. But even if he wanted to meet the wizard that has taken over his thoughts and his life, he doesn’t know where to find him, he doesn’t know how to call for him, and most importantly, he doesn’t know if he would want to be found. He has played with the idea of standing outside close enough to go home just to see if he would show himself, although Chanyeol knows that he wouldn’t waste time like that, when he’s always claiming to be busy. Even more, he probably wouldn’t come out if he didn’t want to — their next meeting would be on his own schedule, and probably at a time when Chanyeol doesn’t expect it.

That theory is confirmed when a few days later, Chanyeol catches the sight of a man wearing a large black coat sitting in a corner booth of the cafe he works at, holding another full wine glass between his fingers. A thin white mask covers his nose and his lips, but it’s easy to tell just from those downcast eyes, his pale skin, from the way his dark hair falls in front of his forehead that it’s  _him_  again.

Chanyeol realizes that he has been looking for too long when those familiar eyes glance up to meet his own, and Chanyeol turns away with a start.

What was he doing here? Thoughts frantically stream through his mind, running through the possibilities, as he pretends to seem busy by sweeping at the same spot that he had been mindlessly sweeping for the past 5 minutes. This must have been the first time he had actively seeked him out. Despite all of the times in the past few weeks that Chanyeol has felt like something was watching him, he hadn’t seen him then. Was it truly something dangerous, or was it him the whole time? … Is he something dangerous?

Chanyeol glances back. He’s still staring.

“Well aren’t you going to serve me?” he calls loudly, and Chanyeol jumps, responding with an embarrassed “of course” as he sets down his broom and skates into the back to prepare a glass of water and utensils.

When he returns back to the front of the cafe, the man is still sitting there, staring, staring even as Chanyeol comes closer, and staring as he sets down the cup of water and utensils at his table while he tries to avoid those piercing eyes as they watch his every move. When Chanyeol lowers his eyes, he tilts his head to see Chanyeol’s face.

“Park Chanyeol,” his voice calls in a soothing, velvety way, like he is savoring the way his name rolls off his tongue, the way it tastes on his lips, and as he pulls the mask down from his face to expose his mouth, those pink lips toy with him even when he’s not saying his name. Chanyeol proceeds with caution, quick to wonder if he’s being put under a spell, but as he looks up to meet those beautiful silver eyes, it’s impossible not to believe that he’s already entranced.

“So you can see me,” Baekhyun says, the slight peek of amusement dancing along his lips.

“Should I… not be able to?” Chanyeol asks hesitantly, hoping that Baekhyun can’t see his fingers shaking around his menu, that he can’t hear his heart pounding nervously in his chest, that he can’t tell that he is helplessly under his control.

The smile on his pink lips is enough to answer that question.

“I’ve been wanting to meet you again,” Baekhyun says, folding his hands as he sits up in his seat. “Something about you has caught my curiosity.” He taps at the table in the space across from him in an invitation for Chanyeol to sit down.

Chanyeol looks at him nervously and asks, “You have?” Baekhyun returns a delicate smile and taps at the table once more. Chanyeol slowly glances around the cafe under the guise of checking if anyone currently needs any help, almost as though he is hoping someone will call him to do real work, but all of the guests are served, other baristas are talking and laughing behind the counter, and no one is paying much attention to his plight. So he accepts the gesture and sits down across from the man who holds all of the answers to these unbelievable questions in his mind behind his lips and folds his hands into his lap, staring down at his twiddling thumbs.

They sit there in silence for a minute or two as Chanyeol attempts to collect his thoughts. He hadn’t thought that he would meet him so soon, otherwise he would have gotten his mind in order and prepared the questions he wished to ask, and similarly attempt to prepare himself for the answers he would hear.

“You look as though you wish to say something,” Baekhyun says, breaking the silence, and Chanyeol glances up to him, then back to his fingers as he bites his bottom lip, wondering what he should start with when his mind was a mess of jumbled, unprepared emotions.

“Thank you,” Chanyeol says nervously, still unsure of whether that was actually a dream or not, because even though he had been thinking about it since then, he had yet to come up with a reasonable explanation. That must have meant  _he_ was truly involved. “For the other night.”

Chanyeol watches the small, amused smile form on Baekhyun’s lips, indicating that he knows exactly what he is talking about, and that he himself is rather satisfied to see that Chanyeol remembers it too.

“To see through a spell that I cast… you’re a very interesting one indeed,” Baekhyun responds with that smile, his closed eyes hiding secrets that know more than his lips say. “I kept you safe and took you home. Call it payback,” Baekhyun adds nonchalantly, and when his eyes open again, he is looking out the window. “You did it once for me.”

The table settles into an uncomfortable silence as the rain patters down outside of the window, setting a grey overcast on both the world outside of their window and their languidly dying conversation. Chanyeol observes the man in the silence, suddenly realizing that his jacket is not wet, nor does he seem to have an umbrella.

“You’re not under any spell right now, so you can relax,” Baekhyun says sympathetically, his eyes looking honest.

Chanyeol looks up to his face and then back down to his hands in his lap, embarrassed that he could tell that he was uncomfortable at the thought, then suddenly afraid of the possibility that he could read his thoughts, and then afraid of everything else that he realizes he doesn’t know.

“Can I ask...” Chanyeol begins, gauging Baekhyun’s expressions, “What was it? A few days ago.”

“Genomes,” Baekhyun responds easily. “Souls corrupted by unstable Underworld magic. My job is to watch, contain, or destroy them, but there have been a lot more around than usual recently,” he mutters. “It’s the same thing that I was watching the first time we met here.” His eyes flick up to Chanyeol’s as he contemplates mentioning that they had been following Chanyeol around, that recently everywhere he has found a genome, Chanyeol has also been there, and he faintly wonders if he should ask what magical connection Chanyeol may have that could perhaps be the origin of this problem, but he hides those words behind his lips and swallows them with his wine.

Chanyeol’s voice is low and nervous as he asks, “You said that if I could see it, I may be at the edge of death?”

“If you could see it, you’d probably be on the verge of becoming one yourself,” Baekhyun responds with smiling eyes as he picks up his glass and lifts it to his lips. “And that would definitely be the end of you.”

Chanyeol’s voice catches in his throat and quivers as it is released. “I couldn’t see it,” he begins, “but I can see you.” Chanyeol watches nervously as Baekhyun sets his glass down and licks at his lips. “So am I dying?”

“You’re not dying,” Baekhyun responds, but he says nothing more.

Chanyeol lets out a relieved breath, although only a little bit of the tension fades from his body. “Then what are you here for? Is there another?”

“There isn’t one here today,” Baekhyun says, stopping Chanyeol from glancing nervously around the cafe. “I’m here just for you.”

The thump in Chanyeol’s chest isn’t one of excitement nor one of fear, but of an anticipation for the opportunities presenting themself to satiate Chanyeol’s growing interest. To finally reveal what secret intentions may be hidden behind those sealed pink lips, what beautiful worlds exist beyond his own, to expose this man and the trail of lies he had been lying down in front of him, waiting for Chanyeol to walk into his palm like a trap. He wants to see what it takes to make him crack, to toy with his emotions, to get in his mind the same way that he has been playing with Chanyeol over these past couple of weeks. He wants to catch him off guard and see those silver eyes flash with a magic that can’t be real. He wants to hear everything that he has been hiding from him, and if he won’t tell him himself, Chanyeol will pry it out from behind those silver-rimmed glasses.

He licks nervously at his lips, toying with the words on the tip of his tongue. “Let me see. Through your glasses.”

Baekhyun only looks mildly startled. He raises his eyebrows and blinks once, then looks down to the table, as if contemplating every possible way that this could go wrong. Yet he carefully removes his glasses and hands them over to the curious human sitting across from him.

Chanyeol takes the specs with shaky hands, and they tremble as he places them onto his face, fearing what he may see.

First, he sees Baekhyun with a dim, silver aura glowing around his body. It pulses with his breaths and makes him look even more ethereal than usual. He looks away to peek into the cafe and around the patrons, up to the ceiling, underneath the table.

He looks back at Baekhyun, who is watching him with curious eyes, until Chanyeol takes the glasses off and frowns at the silver frames. “There’s nothing there.”

“It’s rude to think that I wouldn’t tell you the truth,” Baekhyun responds, leaning onto his elbow with a frustrating pout on his pretty little lips. He holds out a hand to retrieve his glasses and wastes no time in putting them back on when Chanyeol hands them over. “I have nothing to gain from lying to you.”

“I was curious,” Chanyeol says with a pout, looking down to his hands folded across his lap, twiddling nervously with his thumbs, suddenly feeling a little bit of shame for doubting him, or at least for expecting some negative attention from a man who saved him. More than once.

“So was I,” Baekhyun says softly, but when Chanyeol looks up to him, Baekhyun is wearing an expression that clearly states that he’s not going to clarify. They sit there in silence for a couple of seconds, but when Chanyeol looks away awkwardly, Baekhyun lets out a sigh. “You truly are human, aren’t you?”

Chanyeol glances back to Baekhyun and hesitates before he speaks. “Why do you keep asking that?”

Baekhyun glances away and lifts his glass to his lips. “Because it’s hard to believe.” He takes another sip and swallows gracefully before setting down the glass and adds, “But I don’t sense any other Overworld magic in you, so I guess you must be.”

Baekhyun looks down to the table with a disheartened frown, and Chanyeol curls and uncurls his fingers, building up the courage to speak again.

“Can’t I get my own pair of glasses?” he finally asks, crossing his ankles under the table. “I feel like a lot of things have been watching me recently…” his voice trails off as his eyes meet those of Baekhyun, who is watching and listening intently.

“No,” Baekhyun says rather simply, kicking back his chair. “Glasses are only for wizards. Besides,” he mutters, “I don’t think that you’ll need to worry about anything touching you these days. As long as I’m doing my job right, no one else should be getting involved.”

Chanyeol’s heart skips a beat. Although he is disturbed by the thought that the things that had been showing up will probably keep appearing, he feels a little relieved by the fact that Baekhyun is always watching. Baekhyun is always somewhere close by, waiting to protect him.

Chanyeol tries to swallow the tar sticking in his throat and leans forward. “Are you my… guardian angel?” Chanyeol asks captivated with wide, innocent eyes, and is met by a beautiful, euphonic laugh — one that makes Chanyeol’s heart skip beats and flutter like a butterfly’s first day of spreading its wings in the sunshine of spring.

“Dear god, no, of course not,” Baekhyun responds amidst his laughter as he runs a hand through his long raven hair to pull it away from his forehead, shaking as it remains caught between his fingers, his eyes smiling beautifully until he calms his laughter and he looks over to Chanyeol, speaking through his still smiling lips. “Imagine that type of appalling demotion.” Chanyeol purses his lips as he waits for Baekhyun to stop laughing. He doesn’t think it’d be that appalling, but he has already confirmed that Baekhyun’s opinion of humans is very low, so he shouldn’t be so surprised that this is the case.

“No,” Baekhyun adds, the smile still playing on his lips, “My job is much more difficult than that.” He sits up in his chair and sets his glass down before looking up to Chanyeol. His eyes sparkle gently now that the laughter has died out, but Chanyeol thinks the squint of his smiling eyes and the sound of his laughter is out of place on the face of the dark, scowling wizard that Chanyeol has built him up to be, and he wants to make him laugh again, to see that smile again, to convince himself that there is a way to crack into that dark facade and find whatever beautiful thing that he is hiding underneath it. Instead, he takes a mental screenshot of the beautiful glitter in his eyes and holds onto it, unsure if he’d ever see an angel in the midst of beauty’s clutches again. “I’m afraid that I can’t go into much more detail. This has been a nice chat, but unfortunately something is calling me to get back to work,” Baekhyun says, making his way to stand from the table. “There are truly so many things to do these days.”

“You said your job involved those...” Chanyeol’s voice trails off as he forgets the word, but he speaks again, hoping that he knows what he’s talking about. “What else do you have to work on if there aren’t any around?”

“I’m cleaning up,” Baekhyun says after a hum. “Someone’s experiments seem to have gotten out of hand, and I’m taking it upon myself to make sure they don’t wreak the havoc they were created for.” Baekhyun sighs as he pushes in his chair and lifts his empty wine glass from the table, admiring the way the light sparkles off it as he twirls it between his fingers. “I thought that if you weren’t truly a human and were actually involved, you may hold some of the answers to the questions I have too, but perhaps this is just another dead end.”

Baekhyun’s eyes shift over to meet Chanyeol’s, and he looks at him with a kind smile that looks like a goodbye. “In which case, I suppose I should leave you alone and find my leads elsewhere.”

Chanyeol’s heart begins to pound in his chest when Baekhyun begins to walk away, and all he can think is that he can’t let him walk away from him. Not this time. He stands, pushing his chair back harshly so it screeches on the hardwood floor, silencing the cafe.

“I’ll help you!” Chanyeol shouts, hands clenched by his side. People in the cafe turn to look at him, but he doesn’t mind. All that he can pay attention to is that the space between him and the key out of this mundane, everyday life and into a new, exciting adventure is too big, and the string between their chests feels like it’s being stretched too far.

Baekhyun pauses his steps, and his shoulders shake as a soft chuckle tinkles in the air. “Help me?” He asks, looking over his shoulder with a laughing curiosity to those sharp silver eyes and that beautifully condescending smile lounging on those supple pink lips, drawing the breath out of Chanyeol’s lungs and all logical thought from his mind. “How do you plan to do that?”

Chanyeol’s lips flutter between open and closed, wondering what help that the incompetence of a human could possibly be on a team full of wizards, or what someone like him could do for the man who has put his life on the line to protect him.

“I—”

“I thought you wanted me gone?” Baekhyun challenges with a raise of his eyebrows, sarcasm fading into amusement, his lips spreading into a grin that reflects the smug comfort of a cat winning a game that he knew he wouldn’t lose. “Trust me when I say it’s better if you don’t follow, kid. We’re not the good guys here.”

Chanyeol’s body is stunned, lips frozen in silence when the wizard that stole the breath from his lungs turns on his heels and starts walking off toward the exit, taking all of his courage with him.

“But,” Baekhyun says, with a quirk of his lips, “you truly do interest me.” Chanyeol looks up as Baekhyun continues walking, raising a hand to wave. “Perhaps we’ll be meeting again, Park Chanyeol.”

Chanyeol watches as he leaves, words stuck in his throat and questions, apologies, thanks, curses stuck on his lips, and damn him if he can’t let any of them escape. How could he ever stand up to him again if he can’t overcome him in this moment?

A weak plead of “Your name…?” is all that he is able to get out.

The wizard pauses mid-step once more and glances over his shoulder at the human who had caught his interest. They stand there frozen in time like a painting of lovers’ first meeting, where the sunshine streams through the windows of the cafe and highlights the two of them, like they are the main characters on this cliche, modern Shakespearean stage. They look like they are caught between an invitation and its resolution. A cliffhanger before the next episode. A begging plead that this can’t be the last time they meet. This is a 2-player game that requires cooperation from both parts: Chanyeol has moved his first chess piece, and he’s only waiting for Baekhyun to make his next move.

“Byun Baekhyun,” the wizard says clearly, proudly, his silver eyes smiling and his lips curling up slyly at the corners, like an old, wise snake whose prey had walked right into his lips. “Names are everything around here, so try not to repeat it.”

And with that, he turns on his heels and leaves, but Chanyeol is still so beautifully entranced.

 

 

**********

 


	3. Chapter 3

 

—III—

 

Chanyeol doesn’t see Baekhyun for days after their last talk. Not as a flash of light in the middle of the night. Not even a glimmer of his flowy, pretty hair.

Nothing has been following him recently, at least nothing that he has noticed, even though he has begun spending time outside just to see if the wizard would appear.

He never does.

There is a slight hope that comes along with Baekhyun and his promise to keep him safe, where Chanyeol hopes that he’ll see him again, even if he isn’t in danger. Saying that he is interested in him is an understatement when there are so many things that he wants to learn from him, now that he’s figured out that he’s not out to harm him. He finds himself taking his walks again and looking around, wondering if he’d find a glimpse of the wizard sitting in a tree or following along on the path behind him, but when Chanyeol turns around, there is never anything there.

He has already acknowledged that the wizard — _Baekhyun_ — wouldn’t show up just because Chanyeol wanted to see him. He’ll appear to him on his own time, when he wants to, when he needs to.

That doesn’t mean Chanyeol wants to see him any less.

Chanyeol knows that the next time he sees him, it will be when he doesn’t expect it, just as it was when he showed up at the cafe, and that is exactly when he shows up — a week and a half later when Chanyeol is heading back home after grocery shopping, Baekhyun drops down from a tree, hanging upside down from a branch by his knees directly in front of Chanyeol, who drops his groceries with a yelp and falls back on his butt.

“Hey, human,” Baekhyun says innocently, as though he hadn’t just appeared out of nowhere like a spider lowering to its web, awaiting its prey. “I’ve got a job for you.”

 

“We’re on a treasure hunt,” Baekhyun mutters, leading Chanyeol through glass revolving doors and into the grandiose white and gold lobby of a hotel.

“He’s not going to hurt him or anything, right?” Chanyeol asks, holding a dog close to his chest as he follows behind Baekhyun. It’s a fluffy brown poodle with the cutest little nose that Chanyeol had picked up less than two weeks ago, and he had just been getting used to seeing it around his house when Baekhyun called him out on a mission, telling him to wear formal clothes and to bring a dog that he didn’t mind parting with.

Chanyeol’s immediate response was that he would hate having to part with any of the dogs.

Baekhyun had waved him away and just told him to bring the most recent dog he had picked up, and then told him to not mind parting with it.

Chanyeol presses his nose against the dog’s soft fur and lets out a sigh as Baekhyun raises an eyebrow and glances away. “He’s a criminal that has been banished from Overworld and would enjoy causing pain to many things for what he wants. A dog is not one of them.”

“I won’t get him back though,” Chanyeol adds under his breath with a pout.

“I thought it was a stray; he’s not yours in the first place, is he?”

“No, but parting with a family member is always hard, even when they’re new,” Chanyeol says before letting the dog lick his nose. When he sees the way that Baekhyun is looking at him (confused and with a little bit of disgust), Chanyeol lets out a sigh. He wouldn’t understand. “Can I ask why you came to me with this?” Not that he isn’t happy that the man who had been running through his mind had finally come back for him, but the sudden contact was rather unexpected, if not a little suspicious.

“The only other person that would be willing to work with me is currently undergoing a background check back in our world,” Baekhyun says, tapping his toe against the floor as they wait for the elevator to arrive. With the _ding_ of the elevator, they step into the golden chamber, and Baekhyun waits for the doors to close before he starts speaking again. “And this is a job that would be much easier with a human than another wizard. Wizards are suspicious. Humans are predictable,” Baekhyun continues, adjusting his clothing before he taps twice at his glasses and mutters something under his breath. With a poof of hot air and a sparkle of magic, his clothing instantly changes into a suit, the black suede jacket lying nicely in contrast against a white button up shirt underneath. Baekhyun adjusts a slim black tie around his neck with a loud sigh. “I hate human formal wear.”

Chanyeol’s face lights up, as giddy as a kid in a candy store, or at least as giddy as a kid finding out that magic exists for the first time. “How did you do that?” he asks with a smile that spans his face from ear to ear, bright enough for even Baekhyun to want to shield his eyes.

“What, magic?” Baekhyun asks, fingers still curled around his tie. “If you haven't realized by now that I’m a wizard, I think you’re a bit too slow for your own good.”

“No,” Chanyeol whines, “I mean the ‘tap tap poof’ thing, and then your clothes changed instantly.”

Baekhyun raises an eyebrow as the elevator dings again when they reach the 22nd floor. “So, magic.” Chanyeol’s lips press into a disappointed pout, matching the face of the puppy in his arms when Baekhyun clears his throat and turns away from him, stepping out of the elevator. "My glasses help control the filter," he mutters, pressing his pointer finger against the frames as he looks around the hallway. The doors they want to enter are at the end of it, where two security men in suits stand, their shoulders squared, eyes focused on Baekhyun. “They filter the raw magic I feed into them to make casting easier. Small things like this don’t need to be done with a spell,” he finishes as he takes his fingers away from the frames and glances up toward Chanyeol. “Don’t you humans know anything about us? I’ve heard that there are some odd tales that have been passed down amongst generations of yours.”

“Wizards in stories use wands and wear fancy robes,” Chanyeol says rather blandly, curling his arms tighter around the dog squirming in his arms to keep it from falling out of his embrace.

“Only the higher ups wear robes, but usually solely for official events,” Baekhyun sighs, adjusting his clothes, popping his collar so it covers the bottom half of his face. “A wand is a good parallel, but not a conclusive one. Stay close,” he says before leading Chanyeol through the glass doors and into the restaurant.

When they step inside, the scents of sweet spices and high-quality beef hit Chanyeol’s nose immediately, and he gasps, if only to breathe in more of the delicious scent. The lights are dim, giving off a muted orange hue to the large open floor where tables covered in white tablecloths and set with fancy plates, wine glasses, and pretty folded napkins sit in circular patterns, and booths separated by black lacquered wood and glass line the walls of the large room. Vases of extravagant flower arrangements and lavish pieces of art are placed around the room and hung up on walls, their displays matching the grandeur of the small chandelier dangling high above each table, each hung around the larger chandelier that dangles from the center of the ceiling, its bright elegance sending sparkles dancing along the ceiling in swirls of diamond patterns. The upper division is built like a round inner balcony, where rows of small tables are staggered along, leaving enough space for patrons to lean over the railing and see those dining below. Most of the tables are full with chatting patrons wearing expensive-looking clothing and calling waiters who wear smiles while others work, cleaning used tables and placing clean napkins and dishes atop the white tablecloths.

Baekhyun holds his head high, leading Chanyeol to the front of the restaurant, where a man stands behind a black podium with the word _Nini’s_ written on it in a golden, swirly typeface. A large schedule book is open in front of him with names lazily scribbled into time-slots, some messily crossed out.

“How can I help you?” He asks with a low, foreign accent that sounds pretty fancy to Chanyeol’s uncultured ears. Most things that are foreign seem pretty fancy when you haven’t traveled much.

“We have a reservation for two under Park Chanyeol,” Baekhyun says, barely pulling his coat away from his face. When the man asks for some form of identification, Baekhyun taps at Chanyeol’s side, urging him to show the ID that Baekhyun had given him earlier that evening. It’s a fake ID, one that looks nothing like a real one, but Baekhyun had ignored him when he originally brought up his concern; however, the man working the counter merely glances at the ID before he checks the booklet and scribbles down a note.

“Any special requests?” he asks with that fancy accent, and Chanyeol wants to ask where his accent is from and why he accepted that ID so easily before Baekhyun speaks ahead of him.

“A little bit of rose wine from the cellar, if I may,” Baekhyun answers, with that smile that Chanyeol has gotten used to seeing him wear when he is saying something and trying to convey something else. “I know it’s not on the menu, but I know the owner always has some. And those candles look fantastic along the divides; could I ask the owner which _Chandelium_ he purchased them from?”

Chanyeol glances out toward the floor. There aren’t any candles.

The man, however, meets Baekhyun’s eyes and speaks without batting an eyelash. “Your table is on the second floor,” he says before he unhooks the rope to let them step inside, where another waiter smiles and offers to lead them upstairs.

It’s a large, traditional-style diner with a royal red, black, and gold theme. Red and burgundy tiles form flowered patterns underneath women’s heels that clack on the floors as they cling lavishly to their dates’ sides, like it’s a runway to show off their wealth. Large windows frame the sides of the building to show off the night-life of the city — lights that flicker on in the middle of skyscrapers and tall office buildings in the distance as the sun dips below the horizon, spreading its pink and orange glow, and the beauty of the stars on a clear, late-summer’s night. Mirrors adorned with black and gold leaf designs are framed between booths, giving the illusion of the sky extending on either side of the guests and the impression of a rather romantic midnight picnic as though they are alone in the midst of the night. The scents of salty and rich spices blend together in the air with the those of expensive, aged alcohols and wines as they bleed into the tables, setting the rich aroma of the atmosphere.

Bar stools topped with round red cushions that look more plush than Chanyeol’s bed are poised around a bar where a bartender wearing a chic, grey vest stands in front of rainbows of tall glasses hanging upside down and reflecting the lights across the floor in dots of color. Shelves of alcohols and myriad flavored syrups surround the glasses, where the bartender reaches to prepare drinks for the women in their skinny, bodycon dresses with slits up to their panties, sitting back and laughing, calling out to each other across seats with touchy fingers and red blushes spanning across their faces as they laugh with their dates and down more alcohol. As Chanyeol and Baekhyun are led up a grand staircase with golden railing along red carpet that blankets the black steps, Chanyeol’s habit of watching people from the cafe has transferred to this diner as well, as he observes the people seated around the bar and the drunken chatter that fills the air around them, but he sees his own amusement reflected in the bartender's expression that holds disgust for the filthy rich behind his closed eyes and distinct smile that everyone who has worked in the service industry has once worn.

As he follows behind Baekhyun and their guide up the staircase, Chanyeol’s eyes land on the largest of many multi-tiered chandeliers that dangle luxuriously from the roof, lights twinkling grandly as it highlights the people below and sparkles along the ceiling of the establishment, composed of rather fancy decorated tiles, diamond-shaped reds and blacks swirled together in the types of patterns that one may expect to see in a diner that's trying to seem like a higher-end establishment, fit for people with nothing better to do than to spend money. It serves as its own hotel lobby of sorts, with mirrors that display vanity at every chance that they have, from the embellished tiles to the immaculate glass, where someone stands, waiting to be shoved against one to have their breath stolen from their lips.

“I know the man who owns this place,” Baekhyun says as he settles into his seat, leaning back against his chair, his eyes following the servers as they stray away from their table. “He claims humans can be drawn to anything with a small portion size and a high price tag.” Chanyeol continues marveling at the grandeur of the interior before he wonders who will be paying for this, and belatedly wonders if they’ll even be eating tonight. “He isn’t wrong, of course, but his demographics fit him too well, I think.”

“A friend?” Chanyeol asks, adjusting to the plush cushion of his seat. “We’re here to see a friend?”

“No,” Baekhyun sings, drawing his finger along the underside of the table, pausing only when he hears the sound of a switch click. “we’re here to trick him.” He sits up and glances at Chanyeol with a dark look in his eyes. “There is something this man owns that I want.”

Chanyeol settles back in his chair as he watches the expression on Baekhyun’s face. “Not a friend.”

A waitress approaches their table with a platter of two wine glasses, and Baekhyun immediately holds up his menu in front of his face, hiding his eyes. “Rose wine, marbled,” she says, placing the two wide bowled rosé glasses with thick stems onto the table in front of them. A pink rose floats amongst the carbonation, and bubbles collect along the petals as they slowly dissolve into the drink, forming a pink powder that steadily begins to collect at the bottom of the glass. “Are you two ready to order?”

Chanyeol glances down to his menu, then up to Baekhyun, who is acting like a middle schooler hiding his phone behind his textbook, and back up to the waitress with a sheepish smile. “I think we still need a bit more time.”

When the waitress nods and turns to leave, Chanyeol leans over the table to ask, “What are you doing?”

Baekhyun peeks up over his menu and folds his coat down from his face. “I’ll stand out too much if someone recognizes me,” he says, like it’s common sense or like he’s hiding from the paparazzi. “It’s Operation _Get information from the owner_ , not Operation _Get Baekhyun sent back home in chains_.”

Chanyeol’s eyebrows furrow in annoyance. “Who here would recognize you? We’re not in magic land.”

Baekhyun's eyes narrow as he stares at Chanyeol before he glances over the railing and down to the open floor below, full of merry conversation and laughter. “The first floor is full of those like you, but the upper levels are reserved for those from Overworld.”

Chanyeol’s eyes widen as he catches on to what Baekhyun is saying. “So everyone up here is—”

“Don’t look around, you’ll give us away.” Embarrassed, Chanyeol sinks into his seat at the sound of Baekhyun’s scolding voice as Baekhyun sets down his menu on the table. “There are too many humans in the building for anyone to be offset by your presence, so it’s easier to conceal. And having you makes me stand out less.”

Chanyeol scrunches his brows. “So I’m here as a distraction.”

“In phase 1. In phase 2, you’re really important. Don’t drink that,” Baekhyun prompts him, slapping Chanyeol’s hand away from the glass when he reaches toward the rose wine that is steadily picking up a translucent pink hue. “Marbled Skyra rose petals secrete a substance in the wine that is particularly poisonous to humans.”

Chanyeol’s fingers recoil. “Thanks for the warning?” he says when Baekhyun turns back to his menu, blatantly ignoring the sarcasm.

“When she comes back, order this for me,” Baekhyun says, pointing to the photo of a large plate of food — seafood, pasta, vegetables — and holds it up in front of his face. “It’s really good, and if you care anything about culinary skills, I’m sure you’ll appreciate it.” He lowers the menu slightly to peek over it with a roll of his eyes. “I want to say he learned the recipe from his lover, but I have no concrete evidence of that, so I won’t.”

“Why aren’t you ordering your own food?” Chanyeol asks, staring Baekhyun down. “Using my name to make reservations, will you be using my card to pay too?”

Baekhyun glances up to Chanyeol with a scowl before sitting back in his seat and turning his menu away from him. “Like I said, I don’t want to be noticed, but I’ll pay for dinner and pay you for your time.”

Chanyeol sits back, only mildly heartened by the fact that at least his bank account wouldn’t be the one suffering from this. “So if we’re not here to see a friend and we’re barely here to eat, what are we here for?”

“I have a couple of questions to ask, so I figured it’d be nice to ask them over dinner,” the wizard says with a smile, too innocent to fit his beady eyes, too wide to fit his face, especially when Chanyeol has learned that the simple smile that sits on his lips holds many meanings behind it. The smile slips off his face as his eyes sharpen, a serious tone clouding his voice. “Have you been seeing anything else unusual around here?” he asks, those silver eyes of his cutting deep into Chanyeol’s, like they’re searching for secrets that Chanyeol may not even know, like he’s uncovered a new puzzle and he’s determined to find out exactly how every piece of it fits together.

Chanyeol shrinks back in his seat a little. “Not that I’ve noticed.”

Baekhyun drums his fingers against the table, reaching out to pull his wine glass closer with his other hand. “So it’s just me you’re seeing then,” he asks, his tone wispy and bored, as though confirming a fact, neither relieved nor confused. Baekhyun had mentioned that the things he sees may be a result of having worn his glasses and this magical string between them, but if Baekhyun thinks anything of it, it doesn’t seem to be something he wants to tell Chanyeol. He seems to be like that. Making all of these observations and then being hesitant to tell Chanyeol anything he’s learned, dancing around questions and answers until he’s determined exactly what he wants to reveal and how to say it to reveal no more. It’s annoying at best. Suspicious to say the least.

Chanyeol’s eyesight rises up to the glasses on Baekhyun’s face before he glances down over the railing, watching all of the people completely unaware that there were wizards in their presence, and then similarly wondering how many times that he has been in public surrounded by magic users without having a clue.

“I can see everyone else up here,” Chanyeol adds, looking around cautiously. Wizards and other magical beings alike chat amongst themselves in front of plates full of food, most wearing a pair of glasses, thin ones and wide ones. They dress as though this is also their definition of a high-scale restaurant, with their large fancy hats and colorful clothing, yellows and lavenders draped across milky white shoulders like they walked out of a time portal set 50 years ago. It’s a way to escape to Earth without much commitment, knowing that they’ll be in an environment that cultivates magic — serves the same food, surrounded by other wizards — yet still allows them to people-watch down the floor below, and in that way, it's quite similar to Baekhyun's desire to get away on a lesser scale.

“That’s not out of the ordinary,” Baekhyun mutters over the rim of his glass. “Usually, wizards become visible once we cross the border, but I like to use a spell that keeps me out of human sight when I’m working,” Baekhyun clarifies, drawing circles around the wide rim of his wine glass. “To save magic the first night we met, I wasn’t concealed, so it’s not surprising you noticed me. Every night after, however, you shouldn’t have.”

Chanyeol has a distinct look in his eyes that asks why they would want to be seen and fit in when they could be _invisible,_ or at least he’d like to ask specifically why Baekhyun avoids it, but the words don’t make their way out of his mouth before Baekhyun notices the curiosity on his face.

“Some people like trying to pass off as human on this side of the border,” Baekhyun says with a bored drawl and a roll of his eyes before the words can make their way out of Chanyeol’s lips. “Perhaps it’s a kink of theirs, tricking people, or pretending to be powerless maybe. The whole _‘power from the stars’_ thing and leaking light around usually makes me stand out, though, don’t you think?” His eyesight drops to his glass as he swirls his drink around the bowl. “Also, if I don’t hide my presence it’ll be easier for them to find me.”

Chanyeol wants to mention that the way everyone is dressed isn't exactly making them fit in either, but he chooses not to mention it as he watches Baekhyun lift the large glass to his lips. Now that he thinks about it, he hasn’t exactly told him yet what he is hiding from. “Who is ‘them’? Is someone chasing you?” Chanyeol asks hesitantly, unsure of how else to say it before Baekhyun’s eyes shift up to meet Chanyeol’s, and he feels like Baekhyun is choking him with his eyes. “I mean… even that first night we met in the forest… what were you running from?”

Chanyeol watches silently as Baekhyun sets his glass down and licks at his lips. “Sure, we can say someone is after me.” He frowns at his glass, tilting it so the petals of the rose are completely drowned in the pink, bubbling liquid and begin to dissolve a bit quicker. “We can also say that we’re here tonight to figure out who and why.”

Chanyeol scrunches his brows, not exactly satisfied with that answer, but when he opens his mouth to ask another question, Baekhyun ducks behind his menu as a waitress approaches from behind Chanyeol.

She wears a white, collared button-down shirt popped open at her bust and a black apron around her waist; blonde, bouncy curls frame her face, with eyeliner sharp enough to cut a bitch. “You’re not very good at hiding, Byun,” is the first sentence that escapes her red stained lips as she places a basket of warm bread between them with a slight spice to its scent.

Baekhyun slowly lowers the menu from his face until his silver eyes are peeking over the book. “That’s funny, given I’ve been out of the council’s sight for years,” he says with a smile that beams insincerity. “I didn’t know you were working tonight, Chaerin.”

“You’re probably the only one stupid enough to bring a human up here with you. I don’t know what you’re plotting, but I better not get docked pay for it,” she says, though the smile on her lips looks like she’s playing a game with him. She flips through her notebook and readies her pencil, drawing her hair back behind her shoulder. “Are you here to eat, or are you here to waste my time?”

“I would actually like to eat, thank you, but having you as my server makes this a lot easier,” he retorts with a smile before showing her the menu and pointing to the dish that he’d like and makes sure to point to the dessert menu as well, telling her to bring it out after dinner. She writes down his order and doubles it when Chanyeol says that he’ll order the same thing. With a few degrading remarks that Baekhyun deflects with a smile, she collects the menus and walks away from their table, leaving both Baekhyun and Chanyeol staring in her direction.

“Are you infamous?” Chanyeol asks anxiously in hushed tones, looking over his shoulder to watch the waitress leave. “You’re known for doing bad things.”

“That’s not true,” Baekhyun says with a charming smile as he sits up in his chair, looking like a toddler who can’t wait for the cake to be served on his birthday. “I’m pretty infamous for other things.”

“For things like forming elaborate plans to trick people into getting what you want?” Chanyeol accuses, the raise of his eyebrows sharpening his stare. “Do you often get caught on these adventures? You wouldn’t be infamous if they didn’t know it was you,” he accuses with a snort, but when Baekhyun doesn’t answer, Chanyeol pauses to glare at the wizard across from him. Baekhyun’s eyes flit away and Chanyeol can feel his stomach drop. “I shouldn’t have trusted you; we’re going to _die_ —”

“We’re not going to die,” Baekhyun says in an attempt to calm him down. “It’s not dangerous. And I don’t often get caught.”

Chanyeol slouches with a pout, cupping his cheek in his palm with a sigh like he doesn’t believe him. “You haven’t even told me what this plan is,” he mutters.

Baekhyun looks up to him as if he had forgotten that he needed to tell him. “Goal is to get in, find Jongin’s journal, and get out.”

“We’re doing all of this for a journal?” Chanyeol asks, sitting up in his seat. The fake IDs, the unnecessary formal clothing, the incredibly overpriced food, his _dog_ , all to read someone’s personal diary?

Baekhyun doesn’t look phased. “It’s possible that it could hold some information that I need, or at least lead me in a useful direction.” He glances away and continues, “I’d be completely lost without it, so devoting some time to a plan that may lead to nothing wouldn’t be the worst thing I’ve done.”

Chanyeol raises an eyebrow, still glaring. “Who is this guy and why do you want to read his journal so badly?”

Baekhyun sits back in his seat and glances over the balcony with somber eyes. “He was a man who was well known for plotting with the Unders near after the end of the civil war — a traitor during the times that Overworld needed to be the strongest. But he’s also a man who gave up most of his magic, his memory, and his position in Overworld to keep his fiancé safe.”

Chanyeol blinks and slowly sits back in his seat. Although he understood very little of what he had said, the look in Baekhyun’s eyes is dark and serious, and the fact that he is no longer joking means that Chanyeol shouldn’t joke about it either. He wants to ask for clarification, to ask what the Unders and what Overworld are, but as he takes note of the somber expression on Baekhyun’s face as he stares over the balcony and at the people below, Chanyeol sits back in his chair and lets Baekhyun stew in his thoughts in silence. That much, at least, he can give him.

 

Chaerin returns with their orders carrying small plates of salmon, linguine, and vegetables on a cart with a white tarp over it.

“You’re looking at me like you want something, but I don’t plan to entertain you,” Chaerin says as she sets down the plates in front of them.

“Well what I want is to meet with Jongin,” Baekhyun says with pursed lips, “but it sounds like he doesn’t take appointments.”

She glances at Baekhyun dully as she grates cheese over their food. “You want me to get you in there.”

“Nothing bad will happen to you,” Baekhyun reassures her with a smile that looks like he is hiding a lie behind it. “You’re just the messenger, after all.”

“The bringer of bad news,” Chaerin corrects him, cracking a half smile as she sets the cheese grater down. “Unfortunately, there’s a passcode lock on the door to get into his office. Unless you know it, I can’t promise you’ll make it in.”

Baekhyun’s face twists in mock offense. “You must truly think too little of me if you think I’ll be deterred by a passcode.”

Chaerin’s smile is completed with a laugh from her red lips. “So I guess that’s why you ordered twice.”

“Or I just like cheesecake, and Jongin’s recipe is very good,” Baekhyun suggests with a large, innocent smile. “I wonder if he knows how much I adore it. I’d really like that part of dinner too, so please don’t forget it when you return.”

“I’ll think about it,” Chaerin says with bored eyes as she turns around and pushes the cart away, her uniform swaying with her hips as she sashays away.

“Is what you’re planning to do a crime? Breaking and entering?” Chanyeol asks, leaning over the table. “Do you know how hard it is to apply for jobs with a criminal record?”

Baekhyun picks up his fork and begins to eat without looking up to his companion. “Is anything a crime if you don’t get caught?”

“Uh, yes, it is,” Chanyeol deadpans.

“Then I guess you’ll just have to trust me and do what I say so we won’t get caught,” Baekhyun glances upward with a smile, blatantly ignoring his concerns, before he turns back to his plate, mentioning something about the seasoning and how much he has missed Overworld cuisine.

Chanyeol takes that as the sign that the conversation is over, and they continue their dinner without conversation, even though he notes that Baekhyun had mentioned he wanted to ask him questions over dinner. Perhaps he already got the answers he needed.

“One thing,” Baekhyun says near the end of their dinner, interrupting the silence. “Don’t look him in the eye. Promise me,” he stresses. Chanyeol nods and turns back to his food before Baekhyun speaks up again. “Another thing. Don’t get distracted.”

“By what?” Chanyeol asks with a laugh, but the humor in his tone drops immediately when Baekhyun doesn’t respond. “By what?” he repeats again, his voice hinging on serious and a little bit afraid.

Baekhyun doesn’t get a chance to answer before Chaerin appears by their table with a large cart covered in a white tarp, that is much too big to be carrying a single, tiny slice of cheesecake on top of it. She pushes the cart flush against the table that they are sitting at before promptly dropping a fork, making as little scene as possible as she bends down to pick it up and Baekhyun leans down to pick it up at the same time.

Baekhyun’s hand reaches the fork first. Chaerin’s hair covers her face as she reaches out for the silverware and mutters, “I can get you into the kitchen and next to the door, but you're on your own beyond that.”

Baekhyun hands her the fork with a smile. "That's more than enough," he says with a charming wink before pulling Chanyeol underneath the table and slipping onto the lower tier of the dessert rack, pulling Chanyeol on with him until they are completely hidden by the cloth.

“What type of plan is this,” Chanyeol hisses, folding, unfolding, refolding his legs when Baekhyun shushes him and fits himself around Chanyeol to help him get into a more comfortable position while Chaerin cleans up the table, placing the dirty dishes and silverware onto the cart. Baekhyun holds Chanyeol steady, their faces a bit too close, before the cart starts moving again with a bump and Chanyeol holds himself up with all of his strength to keep him from ramming his face into Baekhyun’s.

“We just need to get through the kitchen unnoticed,” Baekhyun whispers, holding Chanyeol close to him so neither of them fall or disturb the tarp. “We’ll get off this after she gets us in.”

The ride to the kitchen isn’t far, although each little bump makes it more difficult for Chanyeol with his legs cramped in this tiny space, although Baekhyun looks relatively unbothered, his brow creased, probably going over what he plans to say and do to make his plot work out smoothly.

Chaerin stops the cart near the large sink in the kitchen, given the sounds of people bustling around and shouting orders as she removes the dirty dishes from the cart, before they begin to move again. She skirts around chefs and assistants before she pushes the cart up next to a door and knocks on it. “Mr. Kim,” she calls, “A customer bought an extra slice of cheesecake; said he ordered it for the owner, if you’d like it.” For a few seconds, no response follows, but with a ruffle of the tarp as a silent _good luck_ , she walks away from the door, leaving them alone.

It takes a couple more seconds before they can hear the door unlock and open, and the cart is slowly pulled into the room. The wheels of the cart slide easily across the tiled floor until it stops in the middle of the room, where long, dark fancy dress shoes and the hem of a red suede pants suit come into view. The clean, crimson suit is further revealed as the tarp is suspensfully lifted, until they can see the man’s tanned face and sinister smile.

“Hi there,” Jongin says, his hair falling handsomely in front of his chiseled face. Chanyeol’s heart begins pounding against his chest, and he convinces himself that it is because they may be killed by such a handsome man before he even got the chance to introduce himself.

But Baekhyun remains calm, or at least he keeps up his calm facade. “Long time no see,” he says. “Is your first instinct always to check under the tarp? Paranoid indeed.”

Jongin snorts as he lets the tarp fall back over the cart before he turns and begins walking away. “Who would buy me cake from my own restaurant, then deliver it on such a large cart? I figured I might as well entertain them for entertaining me.”

Baekhyun says as he climbs off the cart and helps Chanyeol off as well. Though Chanyeol is giving him a look asking if their mission has been compromised, Baekhyun continues calmly, not like he didn’t expect it, but at least as though he doesn’t mind. “Your workers are too diligent,” he says, patting his clothing. “She was probably the only one I could convince to push us in.” Baekhyun nods toward the cheesecake and then looks up to Jongin, who is adjusting a painting on the opposite wall. “The cheesecake is quite delicious though,” he remarks, “you should really indulge.”

The man in the red suede suit lets out a soft chuckle. Black smoke trails behind him as he disappears and reappears by Baekhyun's side, his hand underneath his chin and a grin sitting on his face. Chanyeol takes a startled step back. “If it’s from you, I’m sure it’s poisoned,” Jongin says lowly, and Baekhyun responds with nothing but a charming smile. “It’s been a while, star shine,” he continues.

Baekhyun’s eyes curl into crescents, though his lips twitch at the touch of someone’s hand under his chin. “I brought you a gift, in exchange for information.”

“My own cheesecake?” Jongin asks listlessly with a raised, intrigued eyebrow. When Baekhyun’s smile doesn’t fade, he purses his lips with a hum. “If it’s not your demise, I don’t want it.”

“Fortunately, it’s not,” Baekhyun responds cheerfully, pushing Jongin’s hand away when he can’t handle it anymore before nodding toward Chanyeol, who is standing a few feet away.

Jongin glances in his direction, then disappears and reappears again in front of Chanyeol, leaning over to direct his attention to the tiny brown poodle sticking its head out from Chanyeol’s collar. “Who are you, cutie?” Jongin asks with a high voice and scratches behind the dog’s ears as it squirms in Chanyeol’s shirt. The amusement in Jongin’s eyes fades as his eyes rise and meet Chanyeol’s. Chanyeol looks away. “And who are you?”

“The second half of your present, of course,” Baekhyun steps in and chirps with a delighted smile. The color drains from Chanyeol’s face as he looks toward Baekhyun, asking if he is selling him for information. Baekhyun’s smile is steady. _Anything for what I want._

“I’d rather just keep the dog,” Jongin sneers, still glaring at the tall human in his presence.

Baekhyun remains insistent. “He’s good at cooking and other household chores; I’m sure you could find some use for him.”

“I run a restaurant,” Jongin counters, unamused, but Baekhyun merely purses his lips, looking for more reasons to get rid of Chanyeol.

“More labor?”

Jongin glances between the two, and his lips press into a thin line. “I don’t know why you're trying to push a human onto me so persistently, but I can assure you that I will not take care of it.”

Baekhyun’s eyes squint cutely as he pats Chanyeol’s back, pushing him toward the dark green and gold door in the back of the room. “I’ll convince you,” Baekhyun says with that smile still plastered across his face. “Chanyeollie, will you take the dog into Jongin’s office, for us?” When Jongin assures him that he can take the dog in on his own, Baekhyun holds him back. “I’d like to talk to you alone,” he reiterates, keeping up the smile in hopes that Jongin wouldn’t get suspicious enough to kick them both out.

Jongin doesn’t look very convinced, but he responds with a nod toward the door in the back of the room, which Chanyeol takes as an invitation.

Baekhyun lets him go with a pinch to his thigh and a look that demands _‘Don’t get distracted.’_

Chanyeol acknowledges the warning with a nod as he walks off toward the door, pulling the squirming dog out from his shirt and cradling it in his arms.

“I don’t know what you’re planning, but it better be worth my time,” Jongin says as he turns back to Baekhyun, who is standing in front of him far too innocently. Given Baekhyun’s background, Jongin knows that he is the last person that he should be meeting with, especially when he has gotten in trouble for interacting with him before. He knows the little wizard is tricky and sly, and the fact that he came all the way to his restaurant to speak to him means that he is here for far more than just a chat to catch up.

“You don’t have to be so wary,” Baekhyun teases with a smile, his eyes still carefully watching Chanyeol until he makes his way into the door and closes it behind him. “I figured the more gifts I brought, the more likely you’d be willing to tell me what I want to know.” His eyes shift over to Jongin and his voice drops to a more serious tone. “If it’s something to deal with Underworld, I figured you may have a connection.”

Interest lights up the smirk on Jongin’s face. “Oh, you’re asking for secrets, are you?”

“Where better to get my answers than from someone who may have the best experience with what I want himself?”

Jongin seems to beam from the praise. “Unfortunately, as I’m sure you know, I no longer of have my memory of what you want.”

“And it’s not your memory that I want,” Baekhyun responds easily, and Jongin’s confidence begins to slip. “How often does he come by?” Baekhyun’s lips curl up into a smile. “And how much does he tell you?” The name rolls off his tongue with a flick, like a sweet tease. "Do Kyungsoo."

 

 

The first thing Chanyeol notices when he opens the door is the dogs. Large dogs, small dogs, fluffy dogs, short-haired dogs — all type of dogs that Chanyeol likes. (Chanyeol likes all dogs, so maybe he’s a bit biased.) He lets out a squeal of delight as he steps into the office, and the dogs immediately begin to crowd around his ankles. Chanyeol bends down to coo at them and pet all of the dogs in his reach until he pauses to let out a sneeze that he remembers he came in here on a mission and Baekhyun would be disappointed to learn that he barely made it past the door.

He bids his new fluffy friends goodbye and stands to step further into the office. The dogs still follow closely behind him, tugging at his pants and standing on their hind legs to place their paws on his thighs, staring up to him with those irresistible eyes, but Chanyeol tries his best to ignore them and proceed with his mission. No good spy ever failed to do his mission because he was distracted by a couple of super adorable dogs.

There is a large dark wooden desk in the center of the room and a bookshelf made of the same wood that curls along the walls behind the desk, separated by two large windows with curtains drawn in front of them to keep the room dark. A leather couch and single seats sit across from the desk, and in the corners of the office sit many large bowls of water and food, probably for the dogs.

If Chanyeol was to hide a journal, where would he put it? He looks to the obvious. The bookshelf. Maybe behind the curtain. He looks to the desk. Was it possible that there was some place that it could be hidden where Chanyeol couldn’t hope to find it, maybe magical, such as under a secret floorboard, or something that would only be visible through Baekhyun’s glasses? Then again, he figures that Baekhyun must have thought about that possibility and probably wouldn’t have sent him in here if he had known that would be the case. Chanyeol supposes that worrying about it being in any place that he couldn’t find without magic wouldn’t be of much help to him, and he might as well check the places he can currently see.

He starts with the desk, carefully opening each of its unlocked drawers, pushing away the dogs as they sniff and lick at his fingers, like they know dogs are Chanyeol’s weakness and they’re trying to distract him. The drawers are full of loose-leaf papers and folders, pens, trinkets, and other things, but nothing resembling any type of notebook. He closes the drawers and turns toward the bookshelf. He runs his fingers along the spines, ignoring the fatter books but checking for anything that may contain a journal, but lets out a whine when it is beginning to feel too hopeless to find a journal that may or may not be disguised amongst the endless books on this bookshelf.

The dogs at his feet bark and tug at his the hem of his trousers, begging him to play, but the noise is only taking him away from his concentration.

“Hey, puppies,” Chanyeol says as he crouches down to pet the heads of those nearest to him, “I’d love to play with you so much, but there is a cute wizard standing outside of that door that I really want to impress,” he pleads, hoping they would understand when he knows that they wouldn’t. “Could you help me with that? Could you help me find what I’m looking for?”

The dogs begin to bark and run around the office, only adding to the pandemonium and Chanyeol’s frustration, until one trips over a loose square of the carpet, drawing it up, and something shiny underneath it quickly catches Chanyeol’s eye. He drops to his knees and crawls toward it, pulling out a shiny gold spare key.

It could be a key to anything, but the only things he had seen with a lock so far were a small chest on the bookshelf and the bottom most drawer to his desk. Since he was closer to the desk, he decides to begin with a suspenseful attempt to unlock the drawer, only to be disappointed when it doesn’t open. Chanyeol moves to sit up and accidentally hits his head on the underside of the desk, but as he rubs his head and looks up, he finds another keylock underneath the desk, made out of wood that matches the same material of the desk. He glances at his key before slipping it into the lock, and as he carefully turns it, the lock pops and a drawer folds down from underneath the desk.

Chanyeol’s face lights up with excitement from having found a secret compartment on his first spy mission. Dogs crowd underneath the desk with him, and he turns to high-five the dogs nearby before reaching into the compartment to pull out its few contents. A picture of Jongin kissing the squishy cheek of another man with short burgundy hair that curls in front of his face, although he doesn’t look too amused. Chanyeol swipes the photo aside, more interested in the matte black notepad that the picture was lying on top of. It looks like a normal notebook, and not much like a journal, but the fact that it was one of the few things hidden in this drawer prompts Chanyeol to believe that it’s something important. He peeks into the book and sees a couple of drawings in the midst of messily written notes scrawled and crossed out in black pen that cross the pre-printed lines and change in size across the page, but when he notices what looks like a date at the top, he’s sure he’s found some type of journal.

Chanyeol gathers his finding in silent celebration, but when he closes the drawer, the lights go out and a red light pulses through the room, quickly followed by a loud siren. In a panic, Chanyeol hits his head on the underside of the desk once again and curses as the dogs in the tiny space with him begin barking and crowding around him, like they are trained to make it harder for him to leave. He considers hiding underneath the desk for longer before he remembers that there are larger dogs that look like they serve the purpose of guard dogs in the case of a breach, and that is not something that Chanyeol thinks he has the strength to take on in the dark.

He takes the journal and runs for it. He pushes the dogs out from under the desk and makes his way up to his feet, careful to avoid stepping on the dogs as he runs toward the door, only to find that the door is locked from the security system. He results to pounding on the door, hoping that Baekhyun would figure out his situation and come to his aid, until he feels a large poof of air from behind, and the shudder that runs down his spine is a sharp indication that he’s no longer alone.

 

 

“Like I said, the choice is yours,” Baekhyun sighs, malevolent grin tugging at the corners of his lips. “I don’t have anything to lose in this exchange.”

“What I do with Do Kyungsoo behind closed doors is none of your business,” Jongin says.

“It may not be mine personally,” Baekhyun starts, knowing that he currently holds the upper hand to this conversation, and if he wants to keep it, he’ll have to stay on track with the plan, “but Kyungsoo is a rather high ranking council official, and that indeed makes it the business of Overworld, if it may lead to a significant change in its fate.” He leans back on his heels, smirking as he tries to hide the way his eyes are searching Jongin’s features, assessing his intimidation. “I’m sure I’m not the only one that has caught wind of this. Others are most likely also on his tail for keeping in contact with a traitor like yourself.”

Jongin steps toward him with a curt laugh. “You’re smart for a Theta,” he says, reaching out to curl Baekhyun’s hair behind his ear, but Baekhyun slaps his hand away with a scowl tugging at his lips.

“Don’t ever call me that,” Baekhyun says, his voice low and thin, and the smile on Jongin’s face stretches further.

“You’re smart for one, but you don’t think enough.” He steps forward, the black smoke wispily trailing behind him until he stops directly in front of Baekhyun, and the smoke clouds around him and curls around Baekhyun, tempting to hide him from the world and draw him into the dark. “Would people be more upset about me being visited by Kyungsoo or by the tiny nuisance in their presence?”

“People already hate me enough; there’s not much more that I can do to make that worse,” Baekhyun responds with a nonchalant shrug, hoping that his attitude would show Jongin his point. “But you’re risking Kyungsoo’s reputation and his power like this. Are you going to drag him back into this? After all he’s done to prove his loyalty to Overworld when you nearly ruined his career?” Baekhyun teases, his eyes light and playful as his tone bounces around Jongin’s ears in an airy haze. “I thought he left you behind when he decided to focus on being a Rioux, but why would he still need to talk to someone like you? Is he using you? Or is there something more terrible occurring between you two out of the council’s sight?”

The smoke begins to dissipate when Jongin’s face drops to match the serious tone of his voice. “Byun Baekhyun, bastard son of Skyra,” he snarls, “you are taking this too far.”

A flash of anger crosses Baekhyun’s face in the curl of his lips and the furrow of his brows before the sound of an alarm blares through the tense atmosphere, startling both wizards from their staredown. Jongin turns toward the office as Baekhyun shouts, “Wait!” and reaches out his hand to stop him, but his fingers pass through the cloud of thick black smoke left behind in Jongin’s wake as he disappears, most likely behind the door to his office, where Chanyeol has probably set off an alarm. Baekhyun holds back a curse as he runs toward the door, drawing a quick spell in front it to slash the wood into pieces, which reveals Chanyeol followed by a crowd of madly barking dogs.

Baekhyun skids and turns in the opposite direction, yelling “Run!” to Chanyeol, who doesn’t need to be told. All of the dogs skitter along with them as though they are playing a game, chasing them out of the office space and into the kitchen. When he catches sight of the dog that he brought with him, Chanyeol scoops it up into his arms and holds it against his chest, though he looks amongst all the others running near him, wishing that he could hold them all and bring them all home until Baekhyun grabs his wrist and drags him along, light flashing under his feet as he runs faster than Chanyeol can keep up with, and the dog barks madly in his embrace.

They break free from the stampede as they run through the kitchen, spreading chaos amidst the chefs as they each try to protect their food and themselves as the dogs cause enough commotion for Jongin to lose them among the chefs and the noise. Baekhyun’s light brightens as he speeds up and bursts out of the kitchen, dragging Chanyeol along through the tables, letting the wave of dogs loose amongst the diners.

Shrieks sound throughout the diner, but the two running fugitives pay little attention to them, focusing more on avoiding crashing into anything and making it out of there before Jongin regains the energy to teleport again and stop them. Baekhyun’s grip tightens around Chanyeol’s wrist as he leaps over the balcony railing, the trail of light behind him enticing the dogs to follow down the crimson blanketed steps. Chanyeol clings tightly to Baekhyun’s arm as the wizard lands lightly on one of the rings of the chandelier, which shatters as his light courses through it and causes it to short circuit, and he uses the energy from the burst to propel him to the next. He keeps his arm still tightly wrapped around Chanyeol’s side as he leaps from one chandelier to the next, avoiding dropping into the commotion of screaming diners below, until they break through a window on the far side of the restaurant and escape into the darkness of the night. Baekhyun leads Chanyeol further away from the hotel, hopping across rooftops and verandas while the dogs rampage the streets below, barking and running wildly as they disturb people from the diner and send others into a panic.

Baekhyun’s light slowly dies as out as they escape further from the chaos and the noise, and he comes to a stop on top of the roof of an apartment and finally lets go of Chanyeol’s hand, dropping to his knees as his legs turn to jelly and Chanyeol’s quickly follow.

“You brought the dog back with you,” Baekhyun pants, glaring at the fuzzy being trapped in Chanyeol’s arms that looks like it wants to escape.

“He had so many, he didn’t need mine too,” Chanyeol says with a pout, holding it close to his chest as he breathes heavily. Baekhyun looks away from him, rolling his eyes, and Chanyeol almost misses the slight peep of exhausted laughter that escapes his lips.

They sit there in silence, catching their breath under the stars, far enough out of Jongin’s reach for him to be unable to find them, yet not necessarily safe yet. But Baekhyun leans back against the shingled roof and glances at Chanyeol, who is panting heavily against the dog yet scratches behind its ears and asks if it is hurt anywhere, and Baekhyun thinks it’s okay for them to take another minute or two to rest.

“Ah,” Baekhyun leans his head back and sighs into the air, letting his dark hair dangle from his neck. “All of that for barely anything from that traitor’s lips. I knew it was a shot in the dark but I was hoping for something useful,” he mutters, holding out his hand to count on his fingertips. “All I really know is that they’re still involved and hiding something important.”

Chanyeol blinks and gasps, before he reaches into his shirt. “I think this is what you wanted, good sir,” he says, holding up the black notebook with a smile.

“Really?” Baekhyun sits up quickly and takes the journal from his fingers with a laugh. “Good job, human,” he cheers, turning the small journal over his hands and quickly flipping through the old, yellowed pages. “I’ll admit I was quite worried, but you did well,” he says before pausing and looking over toward Chanyeol and scrunches his nose. “Well except for the fact that you set off an alarm and almost got yourself killed.”

Chanyeol leans back and asks, “What would I have done if you weren’t there,” with a loud sigh, which has Baekhyun laughing as he reaches over to ruffle Chanyeol’s curly hair like he is a puppy himself.

“You did really well, Park.”

Chanyeol freezes and looks up to Baekhyun with pink cheeks, but Baekhyun is already looking away, examining the newest clue to his puzzle. Chanyeol holds his dog close to his chest and mutters a blissful, “Thanks,” into the dog’s fur that Baekhyun doesn’t hear, too busy flipping through the pages of the journal with a bright smile on his face.

Chanyeol glances at Baekhyun shyly from the corner of his eye and then buries his nose in the dog’s fur again, letting out an embarrassed sigh. Of course the money and the praise were nice things to receive, but they were nothing compared to the happiness of being of use to someone who has so much power, yet still called upon Chanyeol for help so he could live out his dream, and if he could do anything to put that beautiful smile on Baekhyun’s face, that would be enough.

 

********

 

Baekhyun basks in the midday sunlight, lazily draped against the curve of a tree, a leg dangling from the branch as he draws his fingers through the air, conducting a symphony of lights that dance at the tips of his fingers, and he taps his foot along to the melody he hums. It has been a few days since he ran his last mission with the human, and he has spent a lot of time scanning the messy pages of Jongin’s journal for any leads. Right now is an attempt at a break from the business of his human realm life and magic realm life colliding the way they have been.

_There are things that have been bothering him recently._

Baekhyun plucks at the beams of light streaming through the green leaves like harp strings that vibrate and tinkle as magic rains down from them, working along with the whistle of the wind through the leaves to form the harmony while Baekhyun mindlessly hums along.

_The presence of genomes is rapidly increasing, making his job significantly more time consuming._

A breeze blows through the air that carries the sparkles of his magic along, the sounds of leaves rustling and light tinkles of music blown away with them as Baekhyun closes his eyes and curls his hair behind his ear to keep it out of his face.

_Kyungsoo’s possible involvement with Jongin, accessing previous dead information, which gives him a definitive edge over Baekhyun._

“Byun Baekhyun!”

_And…_

Baekhyun glances down from his position, down to Chanyeol standing at the base of the tree with a smile too bright on his lips, though he is squinting and holding a hand up to his eyes to keep the light out of them.

_...A nuisance that can see him even in the magic realm._

“Looking for me?” Baekhyun sits up, holding onto the branch between his legs and leans forward to get a better look at the human below. He looks nice and put together today, in a Chanyeol-ish way (though the thought of having seen him enough to define a _Chanyeol-ish_ style is a point that Baekhyun would rather not focus on). On the days that he doesn’t just roll out of bed, Chanyeol has the mindset of a model, albeit one still on a college-student budget, but he manages to pull together well with what he has. That much, through observation and Chanyeol’s own ramblings over the past few weeks, Baekhyun has learned. A thin green and black flannel shirt is draped across his shoulders, exposing the peek of the black graphic tee underneath, and a pair of acid washed blue jeans hang loosely around his long, thin legs. Then of course, the most important element isn’t missing: even though the glare of the sun in is Chanyeol’s eyes, that always dazzling smile is sitting proudly on his lips.

There’s a thick barrier of magic between them, but Chanyeol ignores that, like he’s been ignoring all the other rules Overworld has about interaction between humans and magical beings. In fact he probably doesn’t even know that it’s there.

“I was looking for you, but it seems that I found the sun caught in a tree instead,” Chanyeol responds simply, his voice like a gentle breeze in the midst of a humid summer day. Baekhyun lets out a short laugh as he leans back against the tree trunk, curling his fingers to angle the light away from Chanyeol’s eyes so he can let his hand down, and Baekhyun finally can see those sparkling brown eyes that look far too innocent for all the trouble that he’s been causing. “You’ve been gone for a while.”

When the thought of that smile appearing because he finally found him pops into Baekhyun’s head, he looks away. _Sometimes you just have to get away from some people._

“What have you needed me for?”

They take a walk through the trees, side by side, yet worlds apart. Chanyeol’s fingers play close to the barrier, while Baekhyun curls his own behind his back. There’s probably a rift somewhere nearby that he thinks he can sneak across, he thinks, as he glances up to Chanyeol, admiring the way the sun highlights the high points of his face, his sharp jawline and handsome profile from this angle, and Baekhyun can’t look away, like he wants to cross the rift just to touch him.

Chanyeol looks down to Baekhyun with a smile that’s too reassuring, and that’s when he looks away.

Talking with Chanyeol has been a rather good way for Baekhyun to waste time, and he thinks that Chanyeol thinks similarly, otherwise he probably wouldn’t seek him out as often as he does if he’s just going to ramble on about things and listen to Baekhyun ramble about his own issues as well, although Chanyeol is usually the more vocal one.

They pass time like this, with Baekhyun usually being a good listener when Chanyeol wants to rant about things in his life, all of which happen to be things that Baekhyun doesn’t understand — insecurities about his future, ending up doing something he hates just to have a stable lifestyle. But Baekhyun listens along anyway, offering what seem like simple solutions, but Chanyeol turns them down, muttering that Baekhyun doesn’t understand or laughing when he says that the human world doesn’t work that way. Of course, things like fear of unemployment, college loans, or being forever alone wouldn’t exist in a perfect wizard world, would they. Not when they have bigger problems to deal with.

But Baekhyun has loosened up enough to speak about some things on his mind too: about his home in Overworld and about how corrupt he thinks the council in charge of it is. He speaks about a man named Kyungsoo and another named Junmyeon, hiding enough information about both for Chanyeol to understand his feelings about them, but not enough to really understand what they do or why are they are doing it. He talks about how he misses parts of his childhood and how he dreads the future sometimes too, but these topics always end up in passing, short remarks in the middle of Chanyeol’s stories that always end up directed back to him.

Chanyeol finds Baekhyun most often on his evening walks, stopping in the middle of the park to look for the wizard draped in a tree, or perhaps lying across a park bench. Chanyeol will sit on the ground beside him and talk about his worries, while Baekhyun listens and twirls the curls in Chanyeol’s hair around his finger. Sometimes Chanyeol sees him on the way to the cafe, and on his walk to work Chanyeol may ask about Baekhyun’s work, about his world. Baekhyun holds tight to the information about himself, and maybe the closer to himself that he holds it is the more eager Chanyeol is to pry it away from him. Things like his childhood, or about his current job. About the things he claims to be _infamous_ for. Baekhyun finally admits that back home he’s known to be a bit of a prankster, and also as a bit of a rule breaker. Maybe he has stolen one or two things, or perhaps twenty, he mentions with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders, and although he tells Chanyeol that he’s never done anything he would consider morally wrong, he does also suggest that he’s not necessarily always on the best side of the law. But then he had looked up to Chanyeol with a gleam in his silver eyes and a beautiful smirk on his pink lips.

_“You scared yet, human?”_

Chanyeol comes to see Baekhyun on days that he is feeling particularly under the weather, or on days that he thinks it would be easier to ignore all of his responsibilities and take a walk with someone who does the same. Chanyeol has come to adore Baekhyun not only as the man who saved him, but as someone he finds interesting, both for being a wizard and for being someone who has similarly found interest in him. Not everyone gets to meet a wizard. Not everyone gets to see wizards do magic in front of them. And not everyone can say that the wizard stayed around them to let them see it again. Chanyeol always wonders if he lets himself be seen by Chanyeol to satiate his own curiosity, because maybe there are a few things that he wants to learn from Chanyeol too (not that Chanyeol is complaining about that at all). Having been tangled up in one of his schemes already and pulled along into that type of magical adventure, he’d be lying if he said that he wasn’t dying to do it again. It had always been a dream for him to be able to reach out and find some own adventure in his own life, when it was so difficult to find anywhere outside of this small town to go, especially on the wages he makes as a barista. So Baekhyun is a fresh breath from the mundane normality that he had been fighting with, a vision of the type of independent that he wants to become, and a possible way to escape — to pick up his own future and head somewhere with it.

And Byun Baekhyun is the perfect accomplice to get lost on an adventure with.

“What does this mean?” Chanyeol asks in the middle of their walk, plucking at the golden string that is tied between their chests. It stretches further when Baekhyun walks away from him, though it seems to stay taut no matter the distance between them. “You seemed pretty upset about it.”

Baekhyun holds onto the string to get it to stop vibrating, and then it disappears in sparkles of light. “It means we’re connected at a basic magical level. Some of my magic is mingling with yours enough to form a bond.”

“My magic?”

Baekhyun blinks at him and frowns, trying to find the correct words. “Okay, you know when humans evolve and parts of them that were once useful suddenly serve no purpose?”

Chanyeol scrunches his eyebrows and hops forward a few steps ahead of Baekhyun. “Like… tailbones?”

“Sure, like tailbones. It’s kinda like that.” Baekhyun says, and Chanyeol turns around to face him with a wide, excited smile that Baekhyun matches with a more subdued tug at the corners of his lips. “Everyone has a little bit of magic inside of them,” Baekhyun says, flicking once more at the string caught between his and Chanyeol’s chest before he sticks his hands into his pockets and begins walking ahead again. “Rather than magic, consider it like a type of soul tying, I suppose. My inner being is a little bit tangled up with yours, and they can’t let go.”

Chanyeol blinks and watches him from behind. That was an unexpectedly cute response from someone like Baekhyun. “Soul tying,” Chanyeol sighs wispily into the air before stepping along to catch up, “How would something like that happen?”

“It probably happened when you put on my glasses,” Baekhyun groans, when Chanyeol gives him a look that asks for clarification. “A wizard’s glasses are like the culmination of our magic,” he continues. “They keep it within them and filter it for when we need to use it.”

Chanyeol nods along when he remembers that he had mentioned this before. “Like wands, you said?”

“Almost. When you’re young, you learn how to control your magic and feed it into them when you put them on, and when the glasses accept your magic, you two become a pair.” Baekhyun twirls his hair around his finger and bites his bottom lip as he thinks of a logical progression that may have led them to this state. “In that case I suppose when you put it on, it tried to pair with you, which in turn mixed our magics, and...” Baekhyun pauses, his eyebrows furrowed before he looks up to Chanyeol’s confused face. “You don’t need to know this,” Baekhyun mutters, wondering why he’s telling anyone, especially a human, information about inner workings of Overworld.

Chanyeol tilts his head with a frown, almost as though he’s trying to reassure Baekhyun that he’s just as confused as he wants him to be. “I… can’t say that I understand it anyway, but I can say that it’s interesting. That an entire world beyond this one exists, I mean.”

“You’re taking it all in quite easily, might I add,” Baekhyun comments as he begins walking again.

“I put on a pair of glasses and saw a monster that only exists in movies, and then I watched you shoot light from your hand and destroy it — there’s no use trying to not accept it by now,” Chanyeol mutters, leaning back as he follows behind his wizard guide. “Might as well listen to someone who can make sense of all of it.” Baekhyun keeps silent, responding only with a pout of his lips. Chanyeol takes a few steps forward to catch up to him and walk by his side. “Speaking about that, why do you need glasses to do magic?”

“Our glasses are like a part of ourselves, our identity, the containers of the most potent part of our magic in a way.” Baekhyun answers. “We can do magic without them, but the glasses are mainly for stability.”

“Oh,” Chanyeol says with a pout, suddenly feeling a wave of dread coming over him as he remembers that he tried to break them not long after meeting Baekhyun. What would it do if he had? Would it have released all of his magic, leaving him powerless and humane? Or worse, could it have killed him…? Chanyeol clenches his teeth and catches up to Baekhyun again, hoping to distract himself. “In that case, I suppose you don’t often run around taking and trying on other wizards glasses do you?” Chanyeol asks, nonchalantly kicking at a stone. When he notices Baekhyun giving him a confused look from the corner of his eye, he huffs, “It’s something we do sometimes.”

Baekhyun looks back ahead. “It’s common knowledge for us to not to put on anyone else’s glasses. If you can’t handle their magic or if the glasses don’t agree with you, there can be devastating, undefined results. A magic transfusion can poison you if you don’t match with it.”

Chanyeol’s steps pause with a cringe, and Baekhyun glances over his shoulder and up at him with a smile. “That’s why I was surprised when you said you put them on.” He continues walking ahead, but starts speaking when he hears Chanyeol’s steps following along behind him. “If you’re strong enough to resist it and want it badly enough, my magic from the glasses will try to force its way into your body so you can filter the magic too,” Baekhyun says. “It’s an acceptance, a transfusion of magic not of force, but of _wanting_ the exchange of power. You probably wanted to see what I could see, and that allowed my magic to enter you, and for some reason, you survived.”

Chanyeol’s face brightens. “If that’s so, shouldn’t I be able to put them on again and use magic, or whatever?”

“You can’t use my magic if you’re not a wizard. Human bodies aren’t built to release it,” Baekhyun mutters, met by the return of Chanyeol’s pout. “Although the glasses didn’t seem to injure you the first time,” Baekhyun says with a hum, “I would like if it you didn’t try to put them on again.” Chanyeol freezes under Baekhyun’s sinister smile and the energy radiating out of him that insinuates it is more of a command than a request.

Chanyeol responds with a nervous laugh. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

They continue to speak as they walk along, though Baekhyun slowly begins to tune the deep sound of Chanyeol’s voice out as he is caught in his own thoughts. If he is honest, he had been quite unsettled by the thought of anyone else wearing his glasses and begun doubting the potency of his magic ever since a human had told him that he could handle it. He had been hyper-aware of it, afraid that he was losing his power and began staying out of places where many humans gathered, in fear that perhaps they could see him too. His power becoming weaker meant that he couldn’t do his job any longer, and he didn’t want to think about what those at home would say about that.

Since he had received his glasses, he had been told that they were very important and very powerful, and not to let other people near them. Since the incident with Chanyeol, however, Baekhyun had become a bit more courageous. He meets with a man in a secluded place and curiously hands his glasses to him and asks him to put them on, and as he does, the man bursts into flame as Baekhyun watches, unamused and unremorseful as he had taken the glasses back.

Yet the next day, he met with Park Chanyeol again, who once again wore his glasses and lived.

Since then, he had gained interest in the human who had been following him around and offered to meet with him more often. He wondered why his glasses melded so well with Chanyeol and what it was about him that allowed them to form this bond. Chanyeol was a special case — that was of no doubt by now — but he couldn’t help but wonder what was it about him that was so special, and if it had any answers to what was going on in Overworld, or perhaps any answers about himself.

Chanyeol’s smile drops when he realizes that Baekhyun is staring at him yet not responding to what he is saying, and Baekhyun looks away once more.

 

 

********

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

 

—IV—

 

It is a few days after he had last seen Baekhyun when Chanyeol finds a blank card on his table with words that shimmer silver and shift in the light.

_Meet me at viii where we met the last time._

What is this? And from who? A flutter in his stomach suggests that the card is an invite from a small wizard with pretty silver eyes who wants to see him again so much that he left him a secret note.

Chanyeol suppresses the smile on his face and calls Sehun into the room to show him the card in the early morning light, but Sehun squints at it for a few seconds before turning back toward Chanyeol with his usual tired and bored expression plastered across his face to ask if he really just called him out here to show him a blank card.

Dazed, Chanyeol looks at his roommate, about to tell him that it’s not blank, but Sehun’s response only confirms his suspicions of the sender. He shoves the card into his pocket and throws on his jacket as he collects his things, hastily explaining to his roommate that he needs to go somewhere and doesn’t have time to explain. He leaves the apartment and shuffles into his car, driving off toward the park near the edge of the university.

He parks his car at the edge of the park and runs into the grassy fields, underneath trees and around playgrounds and sandboxes, until he approaches the edge of the forest where he finds the wizard standing, leaning against a tree, the sunlight catching his hair with a beautiful golden hue.

“Baekhyun,” Chanyeol calls breathlessly as he runs over to him, and Baekhyun raises his head, looking upward with a dark look in those silver eyes. It disappears when his eyes meet Chanyeol’s.

Baekhyun holds a hand above his eyes as he glances up to the sky. “You made it,” he says as he looks Chanyeol up and down. “Let’s go before I change my mind.”

“Where are we going?” Chanyeol asks, following loyally after Baekhyun despite receiving no response as he leads him deeper into the forest, until Baekhyun stops abruptly in the midst of some trees.

“This one is considerably small,” Baekhyun sighs, placing his hands in the air as though he’s looking for something to hold onto.

“What are you doing?” Chanyeol asks, unsure of what he’s watching.

“Looking for the rift,” Baekhyun mutters. “It was around here before but I don’t see it now,” he finishes, frustration creasing his brow as his fingers prowl about in the air.

Chanyeol watches Baekhyun for a few seconds before he remembers that Baekhyun had previously mentioned rifts in reference to going in and coming out of his world. Is that where they’re going? To Baekhyun’s world?

Excitement lights up Chanyeol’s face but only for a second, fearing that Baekhyun would send him home if he seemed too excited about it. He instead folds in his lips to conceal his smile as he watches Baekhyun’s brow furrow, muttering words that Chanyeol can’t understand as he moves to another place nearby and continues thumbing at the air. Although he knows that Baekhyun can see things that Chanyeol can’t, he figured that an entrance into his world would be pretty obvious, like a giant adorned gate perhaps, and he doesn’t know why he’s having so much trouble when it looks like he’s thumbing through the thin pages of a dictionary.

Chanyeol leans back into his position with a frown. “You don’t even know where the entrance into your own world is?”

“I don’t use this one a lot, okay?” Baekhyun snaps, quickly swiping his hands down the air in frustration. “It’s in the middle of Faire Square, so it’s not the most covert route for thieves to take.”

“Covert routes?” Chanyeol asks, crossing his arms and switching feet as Baekhyun turns to another portion of the air to scratch at. “I figured a society made of wizards would have actual gates or portals to make it easy to get in and out of your world.”

“There are gates, and then there are rifts,” Baekhyun mutters, continuing to thumb along the air. “Gates are few and heavily guarded, so unless you want to drive a few hundred miles to the nearest one only to get detained or killed on sight, I wouldn’t argue with me,” the wizard finishes with a smile.

Chanyeol promptly closes his lips, choosing to watch in silence, but he can only let a few more seconds pass before he asks, “Are you sure that it’s even here?”

“It has to be,” Baekhyun mutters, “It’s the one you pulled me from half a lunar cycle ago.” Chanyeol purses his lips, letting a few more awkward seconds of Baekhyun clawing at the air like a cat pawing until Baekhyun sits back with a heavy sigh. “It’s not worth it. I give up. There’s another one that I know nearby. We’ll just take that one instead.” He turns, pulling Chanyeol along and out of the forest to drive to the one further away from the city.

When they shuffle into Chanyeol’s car, Baekhyun settles back in his seat and crosses his arms, an exhausted look drawing down at his face as he gives Chanyeol basic directions.

“Are we heading to your home?” Chanyeol asks when he thinks Baekhyun is settled enough to respond. After all, he wouldn’t get out of the car in the middle of the road, would he? …Would he?

Despite that, Baekhyun doesn’t give an answer.

Chanyeol glances to his passenger, who is still looking out the window as he had been for the past five minutes. His profile is well-defined in the reflection of his passenger-side mirror, his pouty pink lips pressed into a frown, those silver eyes frowning along with them. Chanyeol looks back ahead. “You can’t just go home whenever you want?”

“That’s not it,” Baekhyun finally says after a short period of silence. “The barrier is made of Overworld magic, meaning that it’s meant to keep Overworld magic inside and Underworld magic out. We can go whenever, but the tears in the barrier are the only places we can get in and out of it. Turn left.”

Chanyeol obeys. “Underworld magic?”

Baekhyun silences again. “Stop up here.” Chanyeol obeys.

It is a more developed area of the city, but Baekhyun leads Chanyeol away from the bustle and the stores, through the alleyways behind some of the buildings and along the back walls before they stop at an area in front of a stone wall with ivy growing out of control such that small lilac flowers are even beginning to wilt between the deep set cracks.

Baekhyun looks around first to make sure no one is watching before he hooks his fingers into a small warped space in the air, and he sighs in relief when his finger catches.

“Hold on tight, and it might be easier on you if you close your eyes,” he says, holding out his hand toward Chanyeol, inviting him to hold on. “Interdimensional travel can tear you apart if you don’t do it right.”

“What?” Chanyeol blurts, but Baekhyun’s eyes are closed, like he’s trying to focus, and Chanyeol doesn’t want to be the reason they get stuck in the middle of some place that doesn’t exist, so with a little hesitation, he warily reaches out to take Baekhyun’s hand in his own. It’s small and cold.

“Don't breathe,” Baekhyun says, squeezing Chanyeol's hand. “Don't breathe, and don’t let go.”

Baekhyun steps into the divide and pulls Chanyeol in with him, and in an instant, the world feels like it’s flipping. A tug on his body sucks him in, like he’s being squeezed through a tube much too small. In a single instant, a thousand sensations appear that seem to last forever, and then just as quickly, it’s over, and they’re in a wide open grassy field, enclosed by trees, and no one is around them.

Chanyeol falls back from Baekhyun with a gasp, pulling his hand from Baekhyun’s as he falls to his knees and holds his hands to his chest, trying to catch his breath. What was that? He felt like he was suffocating, like he was being pulled apart in a thousand different directions, but Baekhyun is standing there, adjusting his glasses, looking fine and as mildly irritated as always.

“No one should be able to see you, so don’t distract me," Baekhyun mutters, still fiddling with his glasses. “If you even haze, we’ll both be killed.”

Chanyeol sits back, holding a hand to his head as he blinks the blindness away, still breathing heavily as he tries to recuperate from that terrifying, dizzying experience. “What just happened.”

“The pure decomposition and recomposition of your entire physical being along with the ripping of your soul from your body,” Baekhyun responds easily, checking the dirt underneath his nails. “The first time is always the hardest. Welcome to the afterlife, I guess.”

Chanyeol’s movements freeze along with his breath until Baekhyun cracks a smile as he looks down to him. “Kidding.”

Chanyeol shoves at his leg, unamused as Baekhyun looks down to him, his face finally showing some empathy. “That bad?” Baekhyun asks as he holds out his hand. “We can’t take too much time; there’s a schedule I want to make. Get up. Let’s go.”

Chanyeol holds a hand to his head and finally looks up to Baekhyun, where his hand is extended, magic trickling down each of his thin fingers in little white sparks. Chanyeol stares silently as his breathing slows and he glances up to Baekhyun, who is patiently waiting for him to take his hand, those silver eyes soft and apologetic, and Chanyeol can no longer tell whether the drumsticks are beating rapidly in his chest because of the travel or the wizard in front of him. Chanyeol finally looks away as he takes his hand.

Under his breath, Baekhyun mutters a spell before helping Chanyeol up. He taps around the air with his other hand, and sparks of light burst in the air as though he is tapping along a control panel, and he watches Chanyeol closely as he adjusts his spell, making it easier for Chanyeol to breathe, when he’s sure the air is purer than Chanyeol is used to, and helping his eyes adjust to the brightness.

“Don’t worry about your safety here. Humans have such little magical presence, it won’t be too hard to keep you concealed. I’ll make sure nothing can harm you,” Baekhyun says offhandedly, but he gives Chanyeol a confident glance that makes Chanyeol’s cheeks flush, and then Chanyeol looks away, wondering what type of magic it is in the air that is making him so easily caught off guard by the little things today. Baekhyun looks at Chanyeol’s profile for a few extra seconds before looking up to the clouds in the sky and then around the empty area. “There should be a train station near here that will help us get into the city.” Baekhyun walks off, and Chanyeol follows quickly behind.

“Wait,” Chanyeol calls as he catches up to him, “What is this? Where is this?”

“Where?” Baekhyun asks, glancing over his shoulder with a smile. “This is Overworld.”

 

On the walk toward the train station in the slight distance, Baekhyun explains that Earth and Overworld are parallels, one an overlay of the other, and accessible through the rift that Baekhyun had just taken them through. Overworld also occupies space on earth, just in a different realm space, a different dimension than where the humans live. Although Overworld is mainly the region of land that only encompasses the main cities where wizards live, the barrier encompases the entire magical land that extends far past the inhabitable. He explains that Chanyeol and Sehun live on one side of the magic barrier along with all the other humans, while Baekhyun lives with the wizards, elves, trolls, and other magic inhabitants on the other side. It serves as a protection and as a divider, keeping them all inside, safe from the pollutants and darker magic that may be outside.

It’s a relatively short walk to the large, golden train station in the midst of the green plain. No one else seems to be waiting nearby. There aren’t any trains, or any tracks, for that matter, and it looks rather like an abandoned, but well kept bus stop.

“Will we have to wait for long?” Chanyeol asks, approaching Baekhyun’s side.

Without a glance toward Chanyeol, Baekhyun shifts back on his heels as he examines a line of wooden posts with golden bells hanging from the top of them. “Trains outside of the city don’t work on a schedule like that,” Baekhyun says with a laugh. “People come so rarely to these stations that it’d make more sense to have them on a basis where you call when you need them,” he finishes, ringing a golden bell at the top of a post with a schedule titled “Capital Square” carved into it, and Baekhyun turns back to Chanyeol with a smile. “When we get into the city, we’ll sync up with the official schedule.”

A whistle blows in the distance, and a golden train materializes from thin air, along with a short stretch of track underneath its wheels. “Inbound train to Capital Square,” the train chimes as the door opens with a hiss.

Chanyeol gasps, immediately followed by the tinkling sound of Baekhyun’s light laughter. “I guess your trains don't work the same way,” Baekhyun says, a smile tugging at his lips as he waves for Chanyeol to follow him onto the train.

The inside is plush and cozy, with white and gold seats along the sides of the train that remind him of the sofas his aunt owns, and surprisingly air conditioned. It’s empty, which isn’t unexpected, given that he watched it materialize before his eyes from thin air. Large arched windows are integrated above the seats and well display the outside view of the green plains and forests that extend into the distance.

Baekhyun leads Chanyeol toward the seats, and when they are settled, the train gives a jingle as the engine the roars to life. The track lays itself in front of the train, one piece after another, sloping upward into the sky, and Chanyeol’s mouth gapes as the train rides the tracks off the ground, much to Baekhyun’s amusement. He presses himself up against the glass of the train, watching the terrain pass by. The empty green plain and surrounding trees below shift into the blue sky and fluffy clouds as the train rises higher into the sky.

“This is amazing,” Chanyeol says, unable to say anything else as he stares out the window.

As the train carries them along toward their destination, Baekhyun tells a tale of his hometown and the parts of that he was never able to see, of twin cities with two separate ways of life and two separate fates. Overworld, whose society ran on magic, and Underworld, whose magic ran their society. Unlike Overworld, Underworld found more interest in metals and technological advances, with a goal to make the world run without reliance on their own magic. This, in a way, created technologies and used them in ways that exceeded the capacities of their own magic. Underworld believed that perhaps their technology would exceed physical boundaries and even the gods, and of course, the gods didn't like that. Underworld was ultimately destroyed in the war between Overworld magicians and the magicians of Underworld, their magic scattered and unusable so they could never prove to become a threat again.

“This is a train based on an Underworld prototype that was modified to adapt to Overworld’s lifestyle, I’ve heard,” Baekhyun says. “Everything in Overworld runs on magic. This train levitates with a strong type of magic the same way that Underworld’s did with... magnets?" he says with uncertainty, and Chanyeol nods back enthusiastically.

“We’ve got maglev trains back home too, but they’re nothing like this,” Chanyeol responds in awe as he presses further against the window, watching the scenery whiz by. “Underworld sounds like such an amazing city.”

“It was a metal metropolis; a high-tech city that expanded with no limits beyond what their minds could create,” Baekhyun says, almost fondly, admiration palpable in his voice. “I wish I had been able to see it. Unfortunately, the only things I have are photos in old history books and libraries. Unlike our counterparts, our magic has certain constraints, but Underworld was always finding ways to push boundaries further, break established rules to create new ones.” Baekhyun sits back and smiles toward Chanyeol. “Human realm’s Earth reminds me a lot like a more primitive version of what Underworld used to be. The future you couldn’t possibly dream of was Underworld's reality. Consider all the technology that you have and have ever dreamed of. Now imagine it without any of your current world’s physical limitations.” Baekhyun’s eyes gleam in admiration. “That is Underworld.”

Chanyeol turns to Baekhyun, eyes wide and sparkling. “Did they have hover cars?”

Baekhyun’s grin almost challenging. “Flying cars are obsolete to Underworld technology.”

Chanyeol’s face brightens as Baekhyun explains some of the magic behind the way most old Underworld technology worked, his eyes sparkling as he answers every question that Chanyeol throws his way, pride surging in his smile as though he had developed the tech himself.

It has been a while since Chanyeol has begun to notice Baekhyun becoming more fond of him — he wouldn’t invite him to his home town by now if he didn’t care at least a little bit about him, would he? It had been a bit over a month since they had decided to spend more time together, and Chanyeol truly likes it like this — with Baekhyun beginning to feel comfortable around him to the point that he can tell him about things like Underworld. Friendship buds even in the thickest of weeds, between the one who doesn’t trust and the one who does too easily.

“Even though you’re an Overworld wizard, you seem to like those from Underworld,” Chanyeol remarks.

“No,” Baekhyun mutters, “I may be fond of Underworld and its technological advancements, but their wizards were not beings that I hold in high regard. Corruption and greed are not things that I value. Even then, it’s not that I like Underworld,” Baekhyun says turning to look out the window and watch the clouds scrolling past the windows and brown farmlands and green hills rolling by below beside sparkling blue rivers, “It’s that I’m interested in it.” His voice softens. “I’m certain you must understand; even humans are interested in the things they’ll never get to see, aren’t they?"

“That’s true. It sounds like such a beautiful city,” Chanyeol notes wistfully, watching Baekhyun’s expression as he continues. “Seems like a shame it no longer exists.”

“Underworld was both built and destroyed by its own greed.” Baekhyun props his elbow up on the top of his seat and rests his cheek in his palm as he continues, “They were foolish, not heeding warnings and getting so powerful that they thought they were invincible, until their enemies had a way to take them down with their own information.” His voice drops to a mellow, melancholic wisp. “But I wish they could have been able to make a little bit more of a difference on Overworld before it fell. On rules and on magic.” Baekhyun turns toward Chanyeol, holding a finger to his smiling lips. “But maybe I’d be tried for treason if anyone finds out that I said that.”

Chanyeol watches silently as Baekhyun turns back toward the windows and lets out a sigh. “Overworld is beautiful too, though perhaps not in the technological way that you seem to be interested in.” His face appears to relax as the train passes through a cloud and the windows are obscured by white fluff, spreading shadow along his face. “When we get further in, you’ll see what I mean.”

“Isn’t Overworld what we’re currently viewing?” Chanyeol asks.

“Not exactly; we’ve only been travelling amongst outskirts, forests and cropland. Of course they’re inhabited, but soon we’ll be approaching the main part of the city,” Baekhyun finishes as the train bursts through the clouds ahead. “Central Wizard Square.”

Baekhyun’s voice ries amidst the pattering on the train tracks as he and Chanyeol look down into the city of glass and ivory skyscrapers, trees that curve and tower above and around buildings, and a wide, crystal blue river flows leisurely throughout the city, encasing a smaller city within it like a luxury island.

“Aohara,” Baekhyun says pointing to the left, showcasing a city built around a large lake, which runs off into smaller rivers and canals that are scattered throughout the city and drains into the ocean off the coast. The city is built on the canals — buildings stand right at the edge of the water, and green foliage and vegetation grows up the buildings, between the cracks, and takes over most of the land, co-existing with the wizards that live in it. Stone bridges cross rivers and canoes sail across below, while train lines stay lower to the ground, and there are fewer than he finds in the other cities, possibly due to all the boats. Tall ivory and stone buildings with many windows stand the most prominent in the middle of the city, while other small houses fit themselves around the bodies of water in a way that the city flows with the rivers, always working with the natural landscape rather than against it.

“Skyra.” Baekhyun points up and to the right, toward the clouds and the modern city clothed in silver built upon them, forming an island in the sky. Tall buildings built on the underside pierce downward through the clouds, mirroring the buildings on the top of the clouds. Some round, multi-tiered buildings stand in the middle of sharp, pointed skyscrapers and other tall rectangular buildings built entirely out of windows that reflect the light of the sun onto the cities below.

“Doxian,” Baekhyun continues, pointing back down and ahead of them, where a city is surrounded by large, green hills with rolling waterfalls that lead into rivers. Around the outskirts of the city are fewer trees and more meadows, perfect for farmland and growing crops and orchards. Forests thick with foliage surround the main city and grow with the tall skyscrapers in the midst of them, where some houses and meeting places are built in the trees, and wooden bridges connect one tree to another, with meeting places and amphitheaters in the middle of the forests, working along with nature rather than disturbing it, but most houses and other buildings are built in the lower parts of the valley.

And in the middle of the wide river sits a large island where the tallest and most beautiful buildings sit high up on rolling green hills; trains and other railways similar to the one they were currently riding circle around the city along tracks that swirl around the tall buildings, pierce through wispy clouds, and lead out of the city, across the river and lead into the surrounding cities. In the middle of the island sits a large, domed golden building, sparkling under the sun. Baekhyun’s voice sounds stiff, all the playful tease that was in his voice earlier gone as his eyes focus on the city in the middle. “The Capital.”

 

When they approach the next golden train station, the train begins to slow along the tracks and lowers back to the ground before it docks in a large train station full of many other trains and wizards, who rush to make their next train.

Baekhyun steps off the train and takes in a deep breath of the magic filled air, getting used to the tickle of Overworld magic scratching at his skin. Home, but it truly never feels anything like one.

Chanyeol’s eyes sparkle at people as he watches them walk by and tries to avoid them until Baekhyun reminds him that people cannot see him but that he still shouldn’t do anything suspicious, nor should he stray too far away as he leads him out of the train station and into the light, fresh air. Golden streets lined with street lamps begin to flicker with orange flames as it approaches the late evening, but Baekhyun leads him off to a side street to stay as much out of sight as possible. Trees curve above the pathway, forming arches with their entangled branches and brightly colored leaves reflect the light of the sunset as they fall onto the path below, painting the cobblestone paths that twist and turn with red and orange, along which hurried families and lovers on evening strolls making their way around the city.

“It’s beautiful,” Chanyeol whispers. “It looks like a dream, like a fairytale.”

“A what?” Baekhyun asks, snapping out of his thoughts to look back at him. “Fairies don’t have tails,” he retorts with a scrunch of his nose.

Chanyeol opens his mouth to respond before thinking better of it and skipping along the path with a laugh, taking comfort in the fact that he is far away from home and free from the worries that what Baekhyun calls the “human realm” may have that were holding him down, and for now, he ought to enjoy this tiny bit of freedom.

“Baekhyun!”

Baekhyun stops his steps as a crowd of voices calls his name, and they turn to see a small group of fairies hastily flying toward them. Chanyeol holds his breath as the tiny creatures flit past him and up to Baekhyun, swirling circles around his head, leaving trails of laughter and magic behind them.

“You’re back?” One dressed fully in red asks, and opposite from the previous descriptions of magical creatures that Baekhyun has given, she looks quite excited to see him.

Baekhyun holds a finger up to his lips with a cute smile and begging eyes. “Don’t tell Junmyeon, he’ll send me a summons.”

“He’s sent you many,” a voice from behind calls, sending the fae scattering. “Yet this is the first you’ve returned for,” Jongdae says as he walks out from the train station, scowling at the tiny creatures as they flit away.

“Dae,” Baekhyun lets out a surprised gasp, “What are you doing here?”

“A red tail let me know you’d be returning soon,” Jongdae says with a smile, his lips tugging upward at the corners.

Baekhyun watches him a playful hum. “Who would that be? I’ve told no one I planned to return.”

Jongdae pushes the thick glasses up on his nose as the light catches the crystal stud in his ear, causing it to sparkle as brightly as his smile. “Just a hunch, I suppose.”

Baekhyun squints at him and continues walking along his path with a tired sigh. “I’m glad you’re here, but don’t say anything I’m not ready to hear.”

“Why?” Jongdae laughs, taking his lazy stride next to Baekhyun’s side, “Afraid your guest will overhear?”

“What guest,” Baekhyun asks naturally with a subdued laugh, but as it dies out and Jongdae has yet to answer, he looks up to him, very much caught. “...Can you see him?”

“Nope,” Jongdae replies simply. “You’re straining to hold up some spell, and I guess I took a good guess,” he says with a poke to Baekhyun’s side that makes him recoil. “So where is he? Over here?” Jongdae asks, taking a step toward Baekhyun’s left with a swift punch, sending sparks scattering throughout the air around his fist. Chanyeol jumps, nowhere near his attack, but he stands closer by Baekhyun’s side, clinging to his arm. Baekhyun tenses at the touch. “Maybe here?” Jongdae turns with his arm spread wide, sparkling lightning at the ground a few feet away from where Chanyeol stands, followed soon after by a thunderclap booming above them. Chanyeol’s hand tightens in Baekhyun’s, a squeak escaping his lips, although Baekhyun stands tall by his side, looking down to him with a frown, a reminder that he promised he would let nothing hurt him. As he stands, Jongdae’s smile doesn’t reach his eyes when he looks to Baekhyun through the corner of his glasses. “You’re too good at magic to keep running away.”

Baekhyun sighs and glances away as Chanyeol shuffles by his side. “Rumor says I’ll stop running away soon.”

Jongdae’s voice lowers, but the mischievous curve of his lips remains. “Is that why you brought the human that you’ve been recently obsessed with here?” When Baekhyun doesn’t answer, Jongdae leans in closer and mutters, “It’s against the rules to bring a human across the barrier, Baek.”

“I’m already breaking all the rules anyway; one more won’t hurt.”

The smile on Jongdae’s face disappears as his voice drops to a whisper. “The last person that did so died.”

Baekhyun’s response is hard and mirthless. “I am well aware.”

Jongdae looks at his friend for a few more seconds before letting out a sigh. “I’ll take you home,” he says, grabbing Baekhyun’s wrist and dragging him along another path, leading them back to the main golden streets.

“I can get to the castle on my own,” Baekhyun protests weakly but allows Jongdae to pull him along until they step out from the trees and Jongdae flags down a carriage on the side of the road. White horses pulling a wooden carriage stop by the edge of the road, and Jongdae opens the door before helping Baekhyun into the cart.

“You can’t get around on your own?” Chanyeol asks, more in amazement that such a sophisticated sounding town is still using carriages, especially when Underworld seemed to have things better than _hover cars_. “You have chauffeurs instead?”

Baekhyun glances toward him with a raise of his eyebrows and a frown as though he can’t speak to him in public, and Chanyeol holds back a chuckle. The answer is probably more difficult than a simple shake of his head.

When he thinks about it, Chanyeol realizes that Baekhyun doesn’t have much of a way to get around his city back at home either. He’s often in Chanyeol’s car, otherwise he is just seen walking around, or he suddenly appears in trees or in the cafe whenever he wants Chanyeol to find him.

Chanyeol shuffles into the carriage before Baekhyun allows the door to close, and keeps himself pressed up against the carriage window as they begin moving. They ride along the golden streets and underneath the tracks to one of the floating trains, and around beautiful scenery of forests and waterfalls. Chanyeol watches the hills roll by as they drive through what looks a rich neighborhood, full of expensive looking houses that are stories high with gates and gardens and fountains. Then they ride up and into the green hills.

Baekhyun is silent for the majority of the ride while he listens to Jongdae speak, giving only a slight nod or a shake of his head, or an “I’m tired, Dae,” for response.

The carriage is pulled to a stop when they approach a large white castle, secluded from most other civilization, as it sits high up in the midst of the green hillsides. “Let me know when you’re heading back,” Jongdae says, waving to him from the carriage door. “And tell your friend that if he does anything to get you in trouble...” and finishes by making a show of the electricity crackling between his fingers.

Chanyeol hides behind Baekhyun’s back as Baekhyun mutters, “I’ll make sure he knows,” before leading Chanyeol off toward the castle and into the gate.

“Sir Baekhyun,” a tall woman with her grey hair in a tight bun says as she walks toward the gate and leads him inside. Behind her, maids and servants line up along the path to the entrance and bow in toward the path that Baekhyun is about to begin walking.

“Are you royalty?” Chanyeol gapes, as he shuffles along to follow behind Baekhyun. “No, this is another scheme of yours, isn’t it? Are you impersonating a prince? Are we here to steal things?”

Baekhyun ignores the question with a roll of his eyes, giving a slight bow to each of the castle servants as he walks by them.

Chanyeol clasps his hands over his mouth, holding back a gasp. Even if he wasn’t royalty, the way he walked around treating himself like he was would make sense. Baekhyun shoots him a glare over his shoulder as they’re taken into the mansion and lead up an elaborate staircase and into a sideroom off a long hallway. Baekhyun is seated in front of a large vanity with blinding lights that make him hold up his arms and squint his eyes. The maids that followed them into the mansion immediately come to Baekhyun’s side, assessing his skin, touching his face and his long hair, making it obvious just from the expressions on his face that he is uncomfortable with all the attention.

“Sir Baekhyun,” a male voice calls as a tall, handsome man in a tailored suit shuffles into the room. “I didn’t know you were here; how did you get to the castle?”

“I took the train in,” Baekhyun responds elegantly, pulling away from one of the maid’s hands.

“I’m your assigned driver, Sir,” the man says, clearly exasperated but trying not to let it show. “If you had let me know you were coming—”

“I didn’t want to bother you,” Baekhyun says simply, his eyes closed as he gives in and lets the maids pull his hair away from his face and french braid it into a neat, short ponytail. “And I didn’t want to let anyone know either.”

The driver looks taken aback, but he quickly regains his composure. Chanyeol figures if he had been with Baekhyun for years, he should be used to Baekhyun being stubborn and secretive, yet he seems as though he had forgotten Baekhyun’s mannerisms or the fact that anyone wouldn’t pay attention to certain rules in such a way. If he had been caught off guard by Baekhyun’s simple show of doing his own thing, Chanyeol wonders how long it truly must have been since he's been home.

Still, Chanyeol laughs softly at the sight. It sounds like him. He’s the type to have a personal driver but would rather travel on his own. The type of man who doesn’t want anyone to know where he is or where he’s going. Chanyeol has figured this much out.

Baekhyun’s eyes open to glance up to Chanyeol in the mirror, an eyebrow quirked as if asking what's so funny, but his eyes shift up and to the left toward his driver when he begins to speak again.

“At least allow me to take you to the meeting,” the driver pleads, and Baekhyun sighs and lets his eyes close again.

“Only if you’ll let me get ready in peace.”

Baekhyun’s driver takes a few seconds before he bows and turns to leave the room.

Baekhyun waves the maids away when they try to help him with makeup, when they try to cleanse his skin. He covers his face and gently pushes their hands away with a gentle smile as he tells them that he would like to prepare on his own. The maids look uncomfortable leaving it at that, but they bow and shuffle out of the room in a line, glancing over at their young master with looks of pity.

When they are finally alone, Baekhyun breaks his posture and slides down in his seat, letting his eyes close. “It’s too hard to get time and space to myself here,” he lets out in a heavy sigh.

Chanyeol watches, completely understanding of the sentiment. “Should I leave too?”

“Don’t,” Baekhyun responds softly, remaining in his relaxed position. They stay there in silence for a while, Chanyeol standing beside Baekhyun’s chair until Baekhyun lets out a sigh and speaks with his eyes still closed. “What were you asking about earlier? Carriages?”

Chanyeol folds his lips inward apprehensively. He wants to ask him everything. From ‘You live in a mansion?’ to ‘You have a personal driver?’ and ‘Are you really a prince, or is this normal here?’ But Baekhyun looks worn out, his patience and energy entirely spent, and honestly he doesn’t think that Baekhyun would appreciate answering questions about a life he seems like he’d rather escape. As someone from the world on the other side of the barrier, Chanyeol serves simply as a function to remind him that it won’t stay this stuffy and overbearing for long, and his suffering will be over soon when he takes Chanyeol back home. That must be what he is here for, and although he doesn’t completely understand, honestly at this point, he doesn’t blame him.

“I don’t remember,” Chanyeol responds instead.

Baekhyun seems to have aged a few years, with the way the wrinkles across his forehead seem deep set as his eyebrows furrow, and the bags under his eyes and droopy eyelids make him seem eternally fatigued, but the healthy Overworld glow tells lies on his beautiful skin, like the way these wizards are used to hiding all of their problems behind a pretty complexion and a smile, and Baekhyun is too tired of that game to play it today.

“Don’t leave my side,” Baekhyun says, letting his eyes open. They look exhausted, like he is suffering and just wants it all to end. “I brought you here so that you wouldn’t.”

There is something familiar about this. In the way he slouches drowsily in his chair, and the way his eyes look so hopeless. He reminds him of one of the worn-out, abandoned dogs that Chanyeol has once picked up to bring home with him because he couldn’t stand seeing them so lonely, hungry, and tired. Baekhyun looks exactly the same.

Chanyeol wants to step toward him and ask if he is okay, if there is anything that he can do for him aside being by his side, if there is anything he can do to show him that he’s not as alone as he may feel, but he closes off the concern behind his lips, not wanting to burden him further, and barely finds his voice to whisper, “Okay.”

A knock on the door interrupts the silence. A maid peeks her head into the room and cautiously says, “Sir we need to prepare you for the meeting...”

This time, Baekhyun lets them in.

 

Black silk flutters in the wind as Baekhyun steps out the carriage. He looks absolutely regal as he stands with his head held high. His dark hair has been slicked back from his face and braided into a single, thick braid that comes to rest between his shoulder blades, and he is dressed in an elegant black and bright, cobalt blue robe, with a blue sash draped across his chest, like he actually fits in place here, and Chanyeol is finally starting to believe that this isn’t just another one of his elegant schemes that is carrying out too smoothly.

Baekhyun had roped Chanyeol along in an attempt to sneak out of the castle to find his way to the meeting on his own, when they were stopped by a few maids and his driver and shuffled into Baekhyun’s carriage. Although he had sulked for almost the entirety of the ride, watching the hillsides pass by and the falling autumn leaves behind the Pegasi that are pulling the carriage’s large white wings flapping gracefully in the wind really made it worth it. At least for Chanyeol.

Baekhyun truly does look like a prince.

Ahead of them is a large, textured building that looks like a golden castle with a bright dome at the top, larger than the one they rode from to get here. Flowers surround the paths leading into gardens, lined by neatly trimmed hedges and rose bushes surrounded by golden gates that line the exterior. When Baekhyun approaches, the guards standing in front of the entrance step aside, open the heavy golden doors, and bow as Baekhyun walks past them without so much as a nod. Chanyeol follows nervously behind.

Chanyeol jumps as the doors close with a thud behind them, leaving them alone in the silent halls. Chanyeol pauses to look around, but Baekhyun is walking ahead, so Chanyeol briskly walks along to catch up and stand by his side. They walk in silence as they make their way down long, empty halls, where footfalls echo along the crimson red rug down the hallway. Art is drawn along the ceiling from which golden chandeliers dangle, velvety orange magic fires lit upon each wick, sparkling along the golden pillars that line the wide windows, where statues and vases holding bright autumn flowers are placed on pedestals, and the sight is repeated down the hallway like a passage with no end in sight, until they reach the center of the building, stopped by golden arched doors.

Baekhyun stands in front of the doors, staring at them while Chanyeol stands by his side. He doesn’t know what to say to calm him or if anything he could say would. He wants to hold Baekhyun’s hand and let him know that he’s with him, to pat his shoulder and give him a pep talk, but his hands hang uselessly by his side as he stares down to him, hoping that at least his thoughts are making it through.

“Chanyeol,” Baekhyun finally says, his voice reflecting a perturbed tone that Chanyeol had not expected from him, like a worried friend seeking advice, displaying a type of necessary vulnerability. Chanyeol looks down to the wizard by his side as Baekhyun asks, “Do you think… I’m adequately prepared to do this?”

Chanyeol doesn’t know how to say that he doesn’t really know what _this_ is, but it doesn’t take him long to realize that he doesn’t need someone who understands everything that he’s about to go through. He just needs to hear someone say that they believe in him. That they trust him enough to say _yes_ , even when they don’t know exactly what is coming.

So he stays by his side and hopes that Baekhyun feels comfort in the low, steady confidence in his voice and the strong grip of his hand in Baekhyun’s. “Of course I do.”

Baekhyun’s hand tenses in Chanyeol’s for a single second before it relaxes, his thin fingers lying between Chanyeol’s that prove they can hold him up even if he falls and ask for him to trust him back. He lets out what looks like a stabilizing breath and closes his eyes for a few seconds before his pink lips let it out in a whisper. “Okay.”

Baekhyun raises his hand and takes in another deep breath before he pushes the large golden doors open.

 

The room silences when he enters.

With his head held high, Baekhyun leaves everyone silent in his wake as he walks down the aisle, his robe royally trailing behind him, leaving wizards and other magical beings wide-eyed, gaping by the overwhelming presence of Byun Baekhyun, and Chanyeol thinks he immediately understands why Baekhyun was dreading this so much. Despite that, Baekhyun looks beautiful, confident, and majestic, like he has practiced this walk a thousand times and wants everyone that so much as looks at him in this moment to drop dead.

They walk down the center aisle of the large, domed room that resembles a sanctuary. Above them, a ceiling painted with pristine art, and around the art, many old-style windows. Golden pews are situated in the back half of the room, and small glass and gold tables are set up in the front, but Baekhyun walks past them all, heading toward the stage in the front of the room.

“Byun Baekhyun,” a voice calls, echoing through the large silent dome when Baekhyun stops at the foot of the crimson blanketed steps in the front of the stage. He takes a knee and bows to the three men seated in front of him. Chanyeol does the same by his side.

When Baekhyun lifts his head, he looks toward the man seated to the right. “Junmyeon.”

The man named Junmyeon gives him a kind, bright smile, like a father welcoming a prodigal son home. Baekhyun’s hand squeezes Chanyeol’s.

“How nice of you to join us,” Junmyeon says, the smile still sitting on his lips. “How long has it been since you’ve attended a meeting?”

“Indigo harvesting season,” the man seated to the very left laughs. Baekhyun manages nothing but a weak, forced smile.

“If I remember correctly, it was Crimson season two autumns ago. The fairies’ and the elf’s hands were stained from overworking the bridle leaves,” Baekhyun retorts sharply, the smile taut on his lips. The crowd stops laughing, leaving the air thick and silent enough to force Chanyeol to hold his breath, lest he choke on the hostility.

“Take a seat, Baekhyun,” Junmyeon says warmly.

Baekhyun responds with one final bow before he makes his way up to his feet and walks toward the table placed at the right side of the first row of tables, a long one marked with blue crystal and gems. Chanyeol watches as he follows behind Baekhyun, his chin held high, a poised image of dignity and grace, but very sharp and guarded — much different from the laid-back and perpetually tired Baekhyun that Chanyeol knows.

When he sits down, he lets out a breath that he seemed to be holding and most of the attention slowly begins to turn away from him and back toward the leaders in the front of the room as the meeting continues. Chanyeol stands beside Baekhyun’s seat, observing the room as the meeting progresses. It’s difficult for him to follow along with the meeting, as time is told in different units, seasons and cycles, and the rest of the content wouldn’t make sense to him anyway, as they speak of actions and groups of people with names Chanyeol has never heard, but it doesn’t take much to understand that he is overhearing secrets and information that Baekhyun doesn’t care Chanyeol would hear when he knew he wouldn’t understand it and it wouldn’t be relevant to him.

The thought of having a human by his side instead of another Overworld magician was beginning to make a little bit more sense. But he still isn’t entirely sure why he’s standing in the midst of Overworld’s highest ranked officials, next to a man who seems to be used to this crushing animosity and oppressive atmosphere.

“Do Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun whispers, causing Chanyeol to jolt at his side. “Burgundy hair.” Chanyeol looks back to him, taking his place at the podium in front of the three king chairs, adjusting pages of notes. It’s the same man that was in that photo he found in Jongin’s restaurant. His eyes lock on Baekhyun’s with a dark, disapproving glint before looking back down to his paper as he begins speaking. “The topics of this autumn’s end-of-season report from Doxian include the ongoing rice harvesting season...”

“The one you were talking about before?” Chanyeol asks quietly. Baekhyun nods in response, scribbling down a note on his paper to look like he’s paying attention.

“And of course,” Kyungsoo’s voice continues, loudly, proudly, “The reconsideration of seeker Byun Baekhyun as Aohara’s Rioux.” Baekhyun’s pencil stops as he glances up and meets Do Kyungsoo’s eyes, still angry, but confident. Baekhyun returns the same look.

“You bring this up every meeting,” Junmyeon sighs, resting his elbow on his arm rest to cup his cheek in his palm.

“How nice of him to join us for once, so we can discuss with him in audience.” Kyungsoo turns back to Baekhyun and asks, “Can you report to the council the progress of your duties for the previous few moon cycles? Or... from crimson harvesting season, as you’ve so delightfully reminded us.”

Baekhyun’s smile is genuine and arrogant, like he’s doing it just to piss him off. “I’ve been ahead on work, so I’ve been taking a few vacation days.”

“I asked for progress, Byun,” Kyungsoo repeats slowly, patience quickly running thin.

Baekhyun presses his lips together and lets out a subdued hum. “About… 0% I suppose?”

A few chuckles of laughter arise from behind, but Baekhyun doesn’t seem to be phased, the smile still sitting on his lips as Kyungsoo rolls his eyes and turns back toward the three men in the front of the room.

“But,” Baekhyun adds, “I will admit that I’ve been making fantastic progress in my primary line of work. Genomes have sprouting up all over the place, and I’ve had a large amount of success seeking—”

“I asked about your Rioux duties, did I not?” Kyungsoo says above Baekhyun, not giving him a chance to tell him that he didn’t actually specify, when he turns back toward the board members and continues. “As Aohara’s Rioux, Byun Baekhyun is 2nd in command over an entire faction of people — nearly one-third of Overworld’s wizard population. Someone who couldn’t simply fathom the grandeur of his position doesn’t deserve to have it,” Kyungsoo says, his tone sharp and daring. “Not to mention, someone with such a dirty primary job such as a seeker shouldn’t deserve to even set foot into Overworld’s inner courts.”

Baekhyun leans back in his seat as he listens to Kyungsoo drawl on. He’s heard this spiel before. The entire council has. He wonders if he has it memorized and how often he tweaks it. The jab at his job definitely is not new, but saying that he doesn’t deserve to set foot into the inner courts, well, that part is new.

“He is wasting time and entirely neglecting his duties, duties that the other followers would gladly be doing to further the enhancement of not only Aohara, but Overworld as a whole—”

“He said he’s been ahead in work,” Junmyeon interrupts calmly. “There is nothing he should do if there is no work to be done.”

“I’m sorry for the disagreement, Sir, but to someone who actually cares about his position and is in line to become a future leader of a faction, there is always work to be done in Overworld.”

“Do Kyungsoo,” Junmyeon begins, his voice steady and warning, but his eyes look gentle and his lips are smiling, and Chanyeol wonders how he can smile so beautifully while scolding someone. “Not only is he the highest ranking official in both Aohara, both in testing and on-the-field seeker skills, but he is also the one that I find most suitable to hold the position. Are you questioning my ability to choose a successor?” he asks.

Although his confidence has dropped a few notches, Kyungsoo holds his eye contact and responds, “No, Sir.”

Junmyeon’s smile drops as he speaks with a low voice that commands respect. “Byun Baekhyun will remain on the council as Aohara’s Rioux.” Kyungsoo holds his eye contact, defiant, but not to the point that he would speak out of line. “Do you have any final pleading issues you would like to discuss?”

Kyungsoo holds his position for a few more seconds before he finally gives in with a bow. “No, Sir.”

“Then please, onto your next topic.”

Baekhyun leans forward in his seat with his lips pressed together in a frown.

“He really seems to hate you,” Chanyeol whispers, but Baekhyun merely lets out a soft sigh and rests his cheek in his hand, wondering why Junmyeon always has to fight his battles for him.

As the meeting progresses, Chanyeol stops attempting to pay attention to what is going on. Baekhyun’s turn is skipped when he stands up, simply says, “No new items to present,” and sits down. Chanyeol watches each of Baekhyun’s mannerisms, easily noticing that this is nothing like the Baekhyun that he knows. Rather, he is much more polite, reflected in his posture, the way he sits straight in his seat, in direct contrast with the way Chanyeol always sees him curled against the trunk of a tree, legs lazily swinging from a branch, and the way his hands sit calmly by his side, rather than his fingers poised in the air like he’s holding an invisible harp, plucking at the light that streams in between the leaves.

Is this who Baekhyun really is? Is he showing it because it’s who he wants to be in front of these people or because it’s who he is expected to be here? How many sides does he have to show, and in what conditions would he show them?

Is the relaxed, laid-back Baekhyun that Chanyeol has begun getting to know just another facade?

Baekhyun stands as the rest of the room rise to their feet and bow in unison, signaling the end of the meeting. Wizards and others stand around their tables shaking hands and engaging in light chatter, but Baekhyun brushes off his robe and collects his belongings alone, ignoring the whispers of others as they walk past his table. There are really are far too many sides to Baekhyun. Just when he thought he was getting to know him.

“I didn’t know you were a prince,” Chanyeol adds timidly when Baekhyun finishes collecting his things and turns away from the table.

“Maybe because I’m not?” Baekhyun says, barely sparing him a glance. “I’m a chosen successor to a region of land, but I’m far from royalty.”

Chanyeol purses his lips and steps back, sensing his apprehension to the title, when someone approaches them from behind.

“Nice to see you again,” she says with a tap to Baekhyun’s shoulder and an amiable smile that makes her face look very warm. Thick, frizzy hair frames her face, and she wears a white and black robe that looks similar to the blue and black one that Baekhyun is wearing.

Relief and surprise mixes in Baekhyun’s face, and his entire body seems to relax. “Seulgi,” he says, glad that someone who approached him was a friend. She had become the newest Rioux of Skyra not too long ago and was still learning the ropes. She and Baekhyun had really gotten along when Baekhyun was placed in charge of showing her around. Being near the same age made it easier for them to relate (even though she was still quite older than Baekhyun and had her own fair share of work outside of the council), as they were some of the youngest on a council of generally old men. Although Baekhyun had risen to his position because of his power, Seulgi was appointed due to an issue in Skyra that made it necessary to choose the next Rioux earlier than schedule. It seemed as though she was recommended for the job by Baekhyun’s mother, and her personality made it very easy to see why. “How are you doing?”

“Just well, but you should come back more often,” she says with a smile and a wink. “Things get boring around here without you causing trouble.”

“I can’t make any promises that I’ll be back soon; maybe it will take another solar cycle,” Baekhyun responds with a twinkling smile. Seulgi lets out a kind laugh and gives him another pat on the back before she turns, leaving him to watch her gracefully walk away. She was one of the few people who don’t hate him, but one of the people who would never be caught beside him, plotting.

Baekhyun stands around until most people have left the room as from a few groups of people, still chatting as they head for the door. He stands at his table, in front of the three men at the front of the room, until the one he had called Junmyeon politely asks the other two to leave him to speak to Baekhyun alone. They take their stands from the thrones and walk past Baekhyun, barely sparing him a glance as they head toward the door in the back of the room.

“Baekhyun,” Junmyeon says as he approaches, his robe the same colors as Baekhyun’s but longer and far more grand. He stops in front of him, and they stand there, looking at each other. His hair is a short, steel grey that curls above his dark eyes, where his thick rimmed black glasses sit, leaving him looking like a wise, aged wizard. They don’t embrace like old friends, but rather stare at each other, neither with respect.

Baekhyun bows slightly. “Kim Junmyeon,” he greets him.

“Don’t bow, son,” Junmyeon says, lifting Baekhyun’s chin. “We’re family.”

Baekhyun tries to hold back his annoyance that manifests in the slight twitch of his left eye, bothered by that meager touch, even of someone who would call him family. “We are not family,” he says coolly, taking Junmyeon’s hand away from his face and letting it drop. “What do you want, Junmyeon?”

“Where have you been for the past couple of seasons?” he asks, wasting no time in letting his expression harden. “Spending time on Earth and toying with humans can’t be more important than your duties up here, can it?” Junmyeon says, letting irritation finally seep into his tone.

Baekhyun doesn’t speak, keeping his hands by his side, and his eyes shift away.

“I keep your spot on the council while you miss meetings for cycles and waste time on earth, watching those useless beings and playing games,” Junmyeon scolds. “What Rioux Do says is not untrue — you do waste far more time than you do anything productive. How could you be ahead on work when you don’t do any?”

“I never asked you to defend me,” Baekhyun responds, his hands clenched by his side. “I never asked you to keep me your apprentice.”

Junmyeon’s expression softens. “I keep you as my apprentice because your mother asked me to. To make sure you’re not erased in Overworld and to make sure you’re not walked over.”

Baekhyun interrupts with a scoff. “You and I seem to remember differently.” He finally finds the courage to meet Junmyeon’s dark eyes, but he forces the words out through clenched teeth. “Mother abandoned me.”

“She did not. She left you in my hands because she trusted me to take care of you. I helped raise you and tutored you and helped you control your magic since you were young, Baekhyun,” Junmyeon says tenderly, “What more could you want from us?”

Baekhyun’s eyes shift away, though the tension in his body doesn’t fade. Junmyeon shakes his head and sighs. “If you understand, come back more often. Better yet, stop leaving. There’s work for you here,” he says as he turns and begins to walk away.

Baekhyun grits his teeth, digging his fingernails into his palms as his lips tremble, trying to force the words out from his dry throat.

“I want...”

Junmyeon stops his steps and glances back over his shoulder at Baekhyun. “What was that?”

“I want...” Baekhyun begins slowly, looking up to Junmyeon with bitter, resentful, gleaming silver eyes, “... real... freedom.”

Junmyeon stares at him for a few seconds, letting the silence hang before he heads toward him with long, slow strides, until he’s standing in front of him, towering over him. Baekhyun doesn’t cower back. When he speaks again, his voice is low and demanding. “You’ll be dead the second I take my protection away from you.”

Baekhyun clenches his teeth, hoping the pain in his jaw, the pain in his hands could take away from this sharp jab of pain in his chest.

“If you understand, don’t ask again,” he says, cupping his hand under Baekhyun’s chin, doing it as though it’s because he knows he hates the touch. “The moment I let your mother go, she got herself killed. I’m doing what I can to protect you. Understand?”

Baekhyun’s eyes squeeze closed, like he is holding back from wanting to push Junmyeon’s hand away again and scream as he storms out of the room. Instead he stands there defiantly and tries not to let weakness show in the tears he refuses to let stream down his face at the mention of his mother.

Junmyeon’s grasp on Baekhyun’s face releases as he looks down to Baekhyun and lets an onerous sigh. “I just want what’s best for you,” he says endearingly, like he means it. He looks down to Baekhyun for a few seconds before he turns to walk away. “I wish you would stop being so rebellious and come back home.”

Baekhyun’s eyes open to watch Junmyeon leave, but his lip curls indignantly as he spits, “This place has never been a home to me.”

Junmyeon stops walking and turns to face Baekhyun, but he does nothing as he watches his apprentice turn to leave the room, with his robe trailing gracefully behind him as he takes hurried steps that patter along the floor and echo throughout the empty room, and only when he reaches the door does he let his arm come up to his eyes to blot the tears swelling in the corners.

 

Baekhyun is silent on the ride back to the train station. Chanyeol follows along, unable to tell what is going on in his mind and also unsure of what to say to him. So they stand in silence, neither paying much attention to the other until they board the near-empty train to take them back to the outskirts.

“Sorry,” he says softly, falling back against the seat, and his eyes close immediately, “I just need to take a break.”

Chanyeol sits down by his side. “Take all the time you need.”

Baekhyun takes in a deep breath and excruciatingly lets it out as the train begins its ascent into the sky. With Baekhyun’s eyes closed, Chanyeol takes the time to admire the curve of his eyelashes, the way his hair falls from the nape of his neck, the way his pink lips tug down at the corners and open slightly to release short breaths of air.

“I’m sorry for dragging you here,” Baekhyun begins, “I just...” His voice trails off as his eyebrows furrow, looking lost.

Chanyeol reaches out to place his hand over Baekhyun’s, but recoils and sets it next to his when he realizes that he may not like to be touched. “Don’t worry about it.”

He looks drained, and quite rightfully so. To have engaged in a confrontation that he hasn’t been prepared for for what seems like months, he must still be stuck in his mind thinking about it, how it should have gone and possible consequences that may come out of it, and if Chanyeol can do anything to ease his mind, even if it’s just being by his side so he doesn’t need to be alone, then he’ll do it. He wants to tell him that he’s strong, that he admires him, and that he understands why he needed someone by his side. It isn’t weak in the slightest.

Baekhyun lets out another apologetic sigh and leans his head on Chanyeol’s shoulder, adjusting his head underneath his chin. Chanyeol freezes at the contact and waits a few seconds before gingerly reaching out a hand to curl Baekhyun’s hair behind his ear, smiling when Baekhyun doesn’t shift away.

“The surveillance on me is going to get tighter after this,” Baekhyun says with another sigh. Chanyeol responds with nothing more than a hum to acknowledge him, still trailing his fingers through Baekhyun’s beautiful dark hair, happy to see that Baekhyun is calm and lets him, or at least that he’s too tired to push him away. “I’d rather just stay on Earth with you to be honest.”

Chanyeol tries not to let his happiness show in Baekhyun’s delirious state, but he carefully responds, “Well I don’t think it’ll be too bad if we’re together and not on Earth either.”

“You want to come?” Baekhyun sits up and looks toward Chanyeol, who looks like the answer to that question should be a given. Travelling through a magic world and staying by a super cool wizard’s side? Of course.

Chanyeol responds with a short laugh. “Are you expecting me to say no to an opportunity like this?”

“You don’t even know what I’m going for,” Baekhyun challenges with a squint of his eyes, but Chanyeol’s smile doesn’t fade, giving only a shrug of his shoulders in response.

“You’ll have to meet with me again to tell me what it’s for then, I guess.”

Baekhyun stares at Chanyeol for a few seconds, the human still smiling in contrast with the pout on the wizards lips. “I’ll have to travel through magic realm before the beginning of the next lunar cycle.” Baekhyun’s brow creases as he thinks about how this may change his pre-calculated plans. “It doesn’t bother me to think about, but unless you want to be part of a fugitive and a human duo appearing in the same place on radar, you might want to stay home.” Baekhyun glances out of the train’s windows and mumbles, “They’ll be sending more than just the things that you saw in the forest two moons ago after us.”

Chanyeol’s response comes quickly and simply. “If it doesn’t bother you, then it shouldn’t bother me either, should it?”

Baekhyun slowly opens his eyes and glances up to Chanyeol. There’s a look in Chanyeol’s eyes that says that he trusts him. That he believes that he’ll keep him safe, if necessary.

Baekhyun’s voice softens. “It’ll be dangerous.”

“I’m ready.”

Baekhyun closes his mouth but he doesn’t glance away. Chanyeol doesn’t know. He couldn’t have thought this through. He hasn’t considered the fact that he may just hold him back, that the thought of abandoning him in the midst of danger to leave him on his own and escape alive was an option, that he may continue using him as bait, placing him into the jaws of difficult situations only to drag him out at the last second, but Chanyeol’s eyes look so serene, unsuspecting, and naive. He wants to ask him why he is doing this for him. Why he trusts him so much. Why he is so willing to let someone like Baekhyun lead him.

Baekhyun lets his eyes close and rests his head back on Chanyeol’s shoulder, his hair tickling under Chanyeol’s chin as he adjusts his position. “I’ll consider it.”

Chanyeol holds his breath and allows a small smile to sit peacefully on his lips. Even if he can’t do anything to help him besides stay by his side and let him know that he’s not alone, Chanyeol will do the best that he can to be the best companion that Baekhyun could have.

“But for now, I just want to rest,” Baekhyun whispers as he leans his weight against Chanyeol’s side. “Concealing a human’s presence in front of the most powerful wizards in Overworld is a tiresome task,” he finishes with a sigh so soft that it sounds like he is encouraging a butterfly to take off from his fingertips. To have consumed enough magic for him to be this spent, he must have really wanted Chanyeol there to go through all of that trouble for him.

The smile on Chanyeol’s face tugs lightly at the corners of his lips, like it’s one of the butterflies fluttering in his stomach. He can’t tell how he should title this joy that he feels when he looks at Baekhyun, but he can tell that he wants to hold Baekhyun by his side, to tell him that he can rest until he feels strong enough again, and that he’ll hold him up for as long as he needs.

“But until then,” Chanyeol asks cautiously, “you don’t have a place to stay, do you?”

Baekhyun opens his eyes and looks up to Chanyeol with a raise of his eyebrows and curious eyes.

 

 

 

Chanyeol awakes to yells of his name and clatters of pots and pans coming from the kitchen.

Baekhyun stands in the center of the commotion, wearing the long t-shirt that Chanyeol had lent him to sleep in and no pants underneath, having abandoned the pair Chanyeol loaned him in favor of allowing his bare skin to breathe, letting the hair on his thin legs stand up in the cold. Pots rise from the counters and adjust themselves on the stovetop, and milk cartons and bowls float and swirl above head while Baekhyun struggles to manually adjusts the heat settings on the oven, muttering about the annoyances of human technology.

“Chanyeol is going to kill you if he sees you messing with his kitchen,” Sehun hisses, flinching as he tries to grab the handle of a pot and set it back onto the countertop, only for it to begin floating again despite his attempts to keep it in place.

“Chanyeol could try his best,” Baekhyun responds with a roll of his eyes, commanding eggs to crack into a saucepan that sizzles as they do.

Chanyeol rubs at his eyes when he walks into scene. “What’s going on,” he asks with a yawn.

Sehun slides along the tiles to hide behind his housemate. “What is he doing here,” Sehun demands as he peeks over Chanyeol’s shoulder at the intruder in their home.

“I offered for him to stay with us for a while,” Chanyeol responds, scratching sleepily at his neck. “He slept on the couch last night.” Despite their playful banter of “You should sleep in my bed; it’d be more comfortable,” and “The couch is more than enough,” this is where they ended up anyway.

Sehun pulls his roommate aside with a sigh. “Listen, Chanyeol, I know that you like welcoming random things that you find on the street into our apartment, but don’t you think _this_ is a little too much?” Sehun asks, gesturing to the general area of Baekhyun and the mess that he is currently making of their kitchen. After all, if Sehun baked anything and left even one pan out of place, Chanyeol usually gave him a lecture.

But Chanyeol gives Sehun a blank look as though he doesn’t understand what there is to be so upset about before he turns back to Baekhyun and says, “Are you okay in here? You’re awake quite early.”

The scowl on Baekhyun’s face settles into his usual expression as he mutters, “I figured I should help make breakfast or something, if I’m already going to be cadging your materials.”

Chanyeol steps closer to Baekhyun and gives him a sweet smile and says, “You don’t have to do that,” while Sehun watches, mouth agape in disgust, and worsens as he sees Baekhyun’s smile and innocent response of “But I wanted to.”

Sehun pretends to gag and gives Chanyeol an incredulous ‘Do you not see the _floating pots’_ look before he grabs Chanyeol’s wrist and drags him out from the kitchen, leading him into the next room over. He crouches behind the couch and pulls Chanyeol down with him.

“The alien is not staying with us,” Sehun deadpans.

“Not an alien,” Baekhyun calls from the kitchen over the clatter of pots and pans.

“How did he hear that?” Sehun whispers, ducking further behind the couch and pulling Chanyeol down with him. He turns to Chanyeol with a glare and silently mouths, “Super hearing. Alien.”

“Not an alien,” Chanyeol repeats with a laugh, standing from their hiding place, and begins walking off toward the kitchen. “I told you already, he’s a _wizard._ And it’ll just be for a little while. We can’t just leave him alone. He’s on the run and sleeps in _trees,_ Sehun. He’s making us breakfast and you want to leave him there?”

Sehun groans, lazily following behind. “No, but have you considered that he’s on the run for a _reason_?”

Sehun jumps when he turns the corner and sees Baekhyun standing there holding a pot in his hand with a smile on his face. “If it makes you feel better, I won’t be here long.”

Chanyeol steps between the two. “Don’t mind him; you can stay as long as you need to.”

“I really shouldn’t stay at all,” Baekhyun says, his lips tugging downward in a pout. “One night was enough. They’ll be looking for me, and when they find me, I shouldn’t be in a human dwelling. It’s harder to get a ping in a large area like the forest.”

Chanyeol’s face droops. “Are you sure? I don’t want you to be alone if they’re going to be coming after you.”

“I’ve been running for too long for them to catch me now,” Baekhyun responds, turning away to open the refrigerator and rummage through the drawers. “And if I am caught, I don’t want to be caught with a human. That would definitely be more trouble than it’s worth.”

Sehun glances between the two and claps Chanyeol on the back. “Listen to your alien friend, Chanyeol, he seems to know what he’s talking about.”

Chanyeol shoots Sehun a glare when Baekhyun interrupts. “You have strawberries in here?” he gasps, “These only grow in the summer!”

“It’s barely autumn,” Chanyeol says with a laugh as Baekhyun takes out the box of strawberries and looks up to Chanyeol, wide-eyed. “If you like them, you can have them.”

Baekhyun’s surprise twists into happiness as he pokes one into his mouth and his face lights up. “So sweet!”

Chanyeol leans back against the counter with a smile. “He’s too cute,” he remarks offhandedly.

“He’s an alien,” Sehun reminds him, but even he can’t look away as Baekhyun happily continues cutting the strawberries. He finally lets out a sigh and flicks the back of Chanyeol’s ear. “I think you’re a curly-headed nerd that got lucky,” Sehun scoffs, though his lips are smiling as he leaves the room.

 

Baekhyun leaves Chanyeol’s house after they finish breakfast. Chanyeol tells him that he needs to come back again so he can cook him a meal too and show him a few of his favorite guitar songs. Baekhyun says that he wouldn’t miss the offer for the world.

And just like that, days return back to the way they had been before, as if Chanyeol hadn’t just travelled to a magical land in a different dimension a day before. Chanyeol heads to work at the cafe in the mornings and returns home in the evenings, when the sky is turning into pink and orange tie-dye. He takes his walks alone, confident that he will be safe, even if he never sees Baekhyun during them. Baekhyun said that he wanted to stay out of sight, but he wishes that he wouldn’t take it so literally. Chanyeol wouldn’t mind it at all if he came to stay with them for a while (thinking about him sleeping somewhere in the park all alone keeps him up at night), and he would make sure that he got enough rest and food to stay healthy and energetic. As someone that Chanyeol has learned to call a friend, worrying about him and his well-being has become commonplace, but he tries to just believe in Baekhyun’s ability to take care of himself and that he’s too good to be caught.

He also finds himself thinking about that quest that Baekhyun had mentioned in passing on their way back home. Baekhyun had said he would think about it but gave him no response before he left his apartment. Had he already gone back to Overworld, deciding that Chanyeol was unnecessary dead weight? He tries to keep his hopes up, but it is difficult when Baekhyun never keeps in contact and he can’t even tell if Baekhyun appreciates his presence the same way Chanyeol appreciates his.

 

 

About two weeks later, he finds Baekhyun sitting in the branches of a tree that is rich in its autumn attire, showing off bright red and orange leaves that shine in brilliant contrast with Baekhyun’s dark hair and pale skin as he leans against the aged grey-brown spotted bark of the tree’s thin trunk. A breeze blows through the air that rustles the trees’ leaves and blows Baekhyun’s hair in front of his face, but he looks so majestic as he curls it behind his ear, exposing his beautiful silver eyes, and he reaches out to catch a leaf and twirl it by the stem between his thin fingers, looking like a beautiful but lonely Disney princess trapped in a tower, but one that needs no saving.

Baekhyun is wearing a short-sleeved black shirt that fits across his chest a little too tightly, such that it shows the definition of his chest and stretches across the length of his broad shoulders, and light wash jeans distressed at the knees on his thin legs as they dangle from the tree branch.

“What are you doing up there, Byun Baekhyun?” Chanyeol calls, disrupting the cool, still air that had been built around them, shattering the illusion like he is reaching into the painting to touch the subject’s face and prove to himself that he truly is real.

Baekhyun glances down to Chanyeol, and his eyes light up as he speaks. “Just sitting around, skimping on my duties, and running away from people that are trying to kill me, you know. General everyday occurrences,” he says, looking down to Chanyeol with that beautiful, charming grin as he drops the leaf and lets it float down in the air between them.

Chanyeol reaches up to catch the leaf. “In that case, mind if I join you?”

 

Baekhyun’s voice is lost under loud fits of laughter as he watches Chanyeol try to climb the tree, almost falling off the branch himself, while Chanyeol barks back at him that he probably cheated and used magic to get into the tree in the first place, but at least Baekhyun looks like he’s having a good time.

When he makes it up high enough, he sits between a branch and the trunk beside Baekhyun, who laughs as he pats him on the back and congratulates him.

“You really like sitting in trees,” Chanyeol sighs against the trunk of the tree, over-exaggerating his fatigue to make Baekhyun laugh.

“You can see a lot from up here,” Baekhyun says with a wide smile. “Climbing trees was one of the few fun things I was allowed to do as a child.”

“You’ve mentioned that before,” Chanyeol adds, looking up to Baekhyun. “That your childhood wasn’t fun back in your world. Schooling was busy and you didn’t have many people to play with. I think maybe now that you’re an adult, you’re just fed up with society and the way they treat you.” Chanyeol sighs, turning away to pluck a leaf from his branch and admire it as he speaks. “It’s not surprising you don’t put up with it anymore.”

Baekhyun watches Chanyeol silently for a while before he looks away with a chuckle. He clasps his hands and lets out a stale sigh. “You don’t know a lot about society’s rules, but you’re the first person that hasn’t called me absolutely insane for running.”

Chanyeol turns to look at Baekhyun and admires his profile in silence for a few seconds. “I haven’t said that you weren’t either.”

Baekhyun’s eyes close peacefully, and Chanyeol feels drumsticks beating in his chest with a fast, rhythmic pound. “And if you don’t say anything, it’ll stay that way.”

“Is that what you spend so much time around here for?” Chanyeol asks as he looks away, leaning back into his position against the tree trunk. “My silence gives you reassurance that you’re not doing something wrong?”

Baekhyun’s amusement seeps into his sentence, snickering underneath his words. “If that was it, I’d probably be home instead. But home is hostile, and the trees here aren’t,” he finishes, turning to Chanyeol with a smile. Chanyeol smiles back.

“It’s also the first day of Autumnul here,” Baekhyun continues, leaning back against the tree trunk, looking out toward the rest of the forest. The leaves have begun to change colors, dressing the entire forest in orange and yellow hues, and the season makes itself more prominent along with the changes in wind and rain. “I think it’s better known to your kind as the Equinox. That means for the autumn bringers, it’s time to start doing their work more aggressively and make it really start to look like autumn around here.” Chanyeol sits up to ask what that means, but the wizard answers before Chanyeol has a chance to ask.

“That means wind racing,” Baekhyun says with a smiling eyes that brighten as wind shakes through the trees, blowing leaves across his line of sight. Baekhyun sits up on the branch and leans forward to take in the sight, while Chanyeol smiles as he watches the leaves rain down from the trees in cascades of orange and reds. Beautiful indeed, although it truly isn’t something that he figured Baekhyun would have much interest in. He wonders if Autumn is Baekhyun’s favorite season, although the cool tones of his skin and shining silver eyes look like they would better match winter, and he wonders for a second if perhaps he gets this excited when he watches the snow fall too.

It’s at that moment that Baekhyun glances toward Chanyeol, and finds that he is watching him rather than the falling leaves. Chanyeol blinks and looks back to the leaves at the same time that Baekhyun looks back ahead, pink coloring his cheeks as he kneads his bottom lip with his teeth. A few seconds pass in silence before Baekhyun pokes Chanyeol’s side. “Here,” he says, holding out his glasses. “It’ll be more fun if you can see it the way I do.”

Chanyeol looks down to the glasses and back up to Baekhyun, who is no longer sparing him a glance until he peeks at him from the corner of his eyes. Chanyeol holds back the questions on his lips and carefully takes the glasses from Baekhyun’s fingers, and slips them onto his face.

He blinks behind the lenses and looks up to Baekhyun, who blinks and looks away, until Chanyeol sees a leaf race past his vision. The wind blows roughly through his hair, and as he turns to see the leaves fall, he sees a sight that makes him gasp in surprise.

More than just autumn foliage, he sees fairies surfing on the wind, standing on red and orange tinted leaves under their feet as they ride the wind. Some lie flat on the leaves, using them like sleds, while others just fly along, racing past the others as the all glide with the wind. Some stand along the branches of the tree, picking leaves to use as competitors, while other fly past without leaves, using their wings to race the wind. Baekhyun laughs, and Chanyeol laughs along, absolutely captivated by the sight.

“How did this come about?”

“It’s basically a tradition by now,” Baekhyun responds with a smile, “Having fun while doing your job is something that everyone wants, isn’t it? Autumnul is one of the times that there are too many of them to all get in trouble for it, especially when they are doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” he says, leaning back on his branch with a proud smile, as though he was the one who taught them. “They’re bringing autumn to the Otherworld.”

Baekhyun turns back to look at him with that dazzling, childish smile still spread across his lips. “Not to mention, the council doesn’t like them very much either, so it makes sense that they’d rather have them over here playing than causing havoc back behind the barrier, so they let them have their fun.”

A strong wind blows, and a cascade of leaves shake from the tree and fall along with a new batch of fairies riding the wind, fluttering down to the ground with ecstatic whoops and yells that Chanyeol’s untrained ears can’t hear. Baekhyun’s hair blows along with the wind, and the sight completely steals Chanyeol attention from the magic happening in front of him. His lips close as he slowly lifts the glasses from his face to see if Baekhyun disappears, to prove that someone this beautiful must truly just be a dream, yet when he takes off the glasses and everything else disappears, Baekhyun is still there, smiling beautifully... and in the silence of autumn, he can pretend that it’s just the two of them, sitting in a tree and admiring nature.

 

 

“How would you like to join me on my trip?” Baekhyun says softly after the wind has begun to die down. He doesn’t look at Chanyeol, but rather looks down to his thumbs, fiddling with a branch to ignore the fear of rejection thumping in his chest. “You make for nice company, I guess.”

The smile on Chanyeol’s face is so bright that it outshines all the stars. “I’d love to.”

 

 

********

 

 


End file.
